Atabay İlaç ve Kimya Celebrates 85th Anniversary

Atabay İlaç ve Kimya continues its efforts to advance domestic pharmaceutical production with strong commitment.

Atabay İlaç ve Kimya, one of Turkey's most established pharmaceutical manufacturers, is 85 years old. Since 1939, Atabay İlaç ve Kimya has focused on end-to-end domestic production with the philosophy of "health from past to future" and works for public health.

In a country where 95% of pharmaceutical active ingredients production depends on imports, Atabay, aiming to develop 100% domestic pharmaceuticals, is differentiating itself in the sector through innovative projects. Zeynep Atabay Taşkent, Chairman of the Board of Atabay İlaç ve Kimya, noting that Atabay is one of Turkey's most important pharmaceutical active ingredient and pharmaceutical manufacturers, said: "Pharmacists, physicians, nurses, pharmaceutical manufacturers, quality control laboratory technicians, quality assurance specialists, R&D experts, technicians, technologists—we all assume responsibility for creating a healthy society. At Atabay, every generation works together for the health of our people. Our goal is to develop technological know-how in our country, to expand our success in active ingredient production to many areas, to advance domestic pharmaceutical manufacturing, and to reduce dependence on imports in pharmaceuticals. We continuously advance our activities and R&D efforts in this field. We believe that future generations will carry our company's values and goals even further."

Ensures continuous availability of medicines required for public health 

Atabay İlaç ve Kimya is a third-generation family company conducting R&D activities on small molecules, botanical and biotechnological pharmaceutical active ingredients (API) and finished pharmaceuticals, collaborating with physicians, pharmacists, start-ups and universities to develop medicines and vaccines, leading the end-to-end pharmaceutical development value chain and ensuring continuous availability of medicines needed for public health.

Based on human health and nature conservation, Atabay develops and produces medicines that people need in an economical way. Stating that they see this work as a national duty, Zeynep Atabay Taşkent said: "Through backward integration of raw materials for paracetamol, oseltamivir, and acetylcysteine and improved synthesis methods developed over time, we are the only producer of these products in Europe and the neighboring region. We deliver these raw materials to 67 countries.

We are among the pioneering companies in Turkey investing in R&D and developing human resources in biotechnological medicine and vaccine development. We work with the goal of developing medicines that can reach every household in need, making Turkey pharmaceutical-independent."

"We allocate our profits to production facilities, product development and R&D"

Zeynep Atabay Taşkent continued her remarks: "We invest end-to-end in the pharmaceutical development process. We allocate our profits to production facilities, product development and R&D. We are running a project under the Technology-Driven Industrial Initiative Program to increase our domestic pharmaceutical active ingredient production capacity.

In 2019 we received accreditation from the Turkish Ministry of Technology and Industry for our Acıbadem R&D Facility, and in 2022 for our Gebze R&D Facility. In our second R&D center, we develop new pharmaceutical active ingredients (API) on small molecules, biotechnology, vaccines and Herbal Medicinal Products (HMP). During the pandemic, with the medicines, vaccines and R&D investments we developed against COVID-19, we ranked 75th in the 'Turkish Time R&D 250' ranking in 2020, demonstrating our commitment once again to the path we took to meet medicines needed by the people in difficult times."

Ranks 6th among largest pharmaceutical companies on İSO list

Atabay ranks 6th among the largest pharmaceutical companies in the Istanbul Chamber of Industry's "Turkey's 500 Largest Industrial Enterprises Survey" and holds GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices) approval from the Ministry of Health at all its facilities.

With over 150 human, veterinary and agricultural pharmaceutical active ingredients to its credit, Atabay, through its specialized antibiotic, syrup, sterile production, powder filling, tablet and capsule lines, has reached approximately 300 million box capacity and ranks among the highest-producing facilities for the domestic market in the country.

Atabay Biotechnology is one of five facilities that have received GMP approval from the Turkish Ministry of Health for vaccine production and one of three facilities with authorization for microbial biosimilar production. The 'Recombinant Protein RBD Subunit Vaccine,' developed by the TUBITAK-supported Izmir Biotype and Genome Center (IBG) for the COVID-19 pandemic and critical as a platform vaccine technology, is being produced at the GMP-approved Atabay Biotechnology Facility for clinical trials.

Atabay develops public-university-industry collaboration projects with 10 Turkish universities and runs strategic R&D projects with TUBITAK Marmara Research Center. Additionally, through its membership in the University-Industry Collaboration Center Platform (ÜSÏMP), it strengthens its collaborations with numerous University Technology Transfer Offices and Technoparks across the country.