A team of scientists at Atatürk University has launched an ambitious effort to domestically synthesize pharmaceutical raw materials used in treatments ranging from cardiovascular disease to cancer and rare illnesses, addressing long-standing vulnerabilities in Türkiye’s access to essential medicines.
The project is being carried out by Ömer İrfan Küfrevioğlu, head of the university’s Chemistry Department, and Serdar Burmaoğlu, a faculty member in the same department, who shared details of the research.
The initiative focuses on producing active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) for 11 major drug groups, including medicines used for heart disease, cancer, rare disorders, pain relief, fever reduction and morphine-based treatments.
Küfrevioğlu said around 100 drugs have been identified within the scope of the project, noting that these medicines could be used in the treatment of approximately 90-95 percent of diseases.
Supported by the university administration and funded under the Higher Education Council’s priority fields program, the project has also brought 11 graduate research assistants into the team.
He stressed that domestic production would be crucial in times of crisis, such as pandemics or conflicts, when global supply chains may be disrupted.
The department is equipped with advanced technologies, including nuclear magnetic resonance systems, allowing for high-level synthesis and structural analysis of organic compounds.
Producing pharmaceutical raw materials at lower cost, Küfrevioğlu said, could enable Türkiye to make significant progress in healthcare, similar to gains achieved in the defense industry.
Burmaoğlu emphasized that the work focuses on raw materials rather than finished drugs and that about 95 percent of the targeted molecules are already used in existing treatments.
He said the team is developing original synthesis methods outside current patent frameworks, enabling the creation of domestic patents while avoiding legal constraints.
Another goal is to reach production costs comparable to those of major global suppliers such as China and India.
The researchers aim to complete the current phase by year’s end and plan to begin synthesizing an additional 12 raw materials under a separate project.
