Turkey to become important player by producing its own vaccine: Erdoğan

ANKARA

Turkey will become one of the prominent countries in the world by producing its own vaccine against the COVID-19, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said, informing that Turkish scientists were running 17 different projects and three innovative vaccine programs.

“According to the figures of the World Health Organization, after the United States and China, we have come forward as the third country with the most vaccine studies. We will become a prominent country in the international arena as a country developing its own vaccine,” Erdoğan said at an award-winning ceremony held by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK) and Turkish Academy of Sciences (TÜBA) on Jan. 28.

The government is closely following and endorsing researches and works by Turkish scientists in the field of health, Erdoğan said, noting that the government launched a special platform under the leadership of the TÜBİTAK to tackle the COVID-19 even before the pandemic was spotted in Turkey.

“We have launched a scientific mobilization against the COVID-19 with the TÜBİTAK. Our 436 researchers are running 17 projects on developing vaccines and medicine. Three of our innovative vaccine studies are about to enter phase trials. Studies about a second-generation vaccine are unfolding,” Erdoğan said.

Our companies will be involved in the production processes of our national vaccine, he added.

In his address at the ceremony, TÜBİTAK Chair Hasan Mandal vowed that nationally developed vaccines would be much more effective and secure against the novel coronavirus.

“Our vaccines will not be similar to those being developed abroad,” Mandal said.

HH Turkey to call Turkish researchers abroad back home

Erdoğan also said the government has always attached importance to improving the education quality in Turkey.

“We are now focused on pre-school education. We have increased the schooling rate to 75 percent. We are hoping to increase it to 100 percent,” he said.

Erdoğan also informed that a number of prominent Turkish scientists who were carrying out studies abroad have returned to Turkey.

“We will make another call this year to have at least 100 researchers back home,” he said.