Turkey seeks to charm foreign pharma investors with purchase guarantee

Hacer Boyacıoğlu SAN DIEGO

Development Minister Cevdet Yılmaz is in talks with foreign companies’ representatives.

Turkey has sought to attract global pharmaceutical companies to invest in the country at this year’s BIO International Convention in San Diego, pledging purchase guarantees and vast incentives.

Led by Turkish Development Minister Cevdet Yılmaz, a total of 34 participants – composing of 20 private and 14 public companies –representing Turkey highlighted the advantages in the Turkish pharmaceutical sector with the aim of drawing foreign investment.

“We say ‘Come to Turkey and produce your products here,’” Yılmaz said, while speaking to daily Hürriyet.

The government’s aim to lure foreign investors is based on its purchase guarantee, which could reach up to seven years, according to the minister.

The public’s guarantee of purchase practice has been implemented in several sectors and it could now encompass the pharmaceuticals sector, Yılmaz said.

“The public sector is the biggest buyer of pharmaceutics. We say ‘We can buy the products if you produce them here.’ Therefore, we make their investments feasible,” Yılmaz has stressed.

The minister said a model that will lift uncertainties in the sector could achieve success; reminding investors of the strength of Turkey’s logistical sector and how this could be beneficial for investors.
He added that a system that provides incentives, as well as government aid from the country’s science watchdog the Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK), will complement the model that being worked on.

However, Yılmaz said the government’s much-criticized medicine price policy was dissociated from this investment attraction model.

“We wouldn’t have a policy that will raise spending more,” he said.

Price discounts that have been enforced by the government since 2009 and problems with fixed currency rate practices in purchasing have been prompting an outcry from sector players who complain of a decrease in profitability and postponement in planned investments.