TÜBİTAK MAM Gene Engineering and Biotechnology Institute (GMBE) has rolled up its sleeves to work on biotechnological drugs, which are increasing their market share in the world pharmaceutical industry every year. TÜBİTAK MAM GMBE will implement a transgenic mouse platform that produces a fully human antibody-based drug, with a price tag of billion dollars, to develop new drugs.
Having previously produced transgenic mice, TÜBİTAK MAM GMBE has the necessary equipment and capacity to develop such a mouse, which will be a first in Turkey, with its own facilities.
Only 3-4 transgenic mice have been produced in the world for this purpose. Some big companies are buying these platforms for 1.2-2.5 billion dollars and using them to develop and produce their own new drugs.
TÜBİTAK MAM GMBE Deputy Director Dr. Abdullah Karadağ said, "This platform is the latest technology in biotechnological drug production, with this mouse we will be one of the most important players in the world pharmaceutical league." Stating that Turkey needs to make a breakthrough in the field of biotechnological products, Karadağ said that they are working to make domestic drugs and vaccines.
In 2014, Turkey spent 4.7 billion dollars on biotechnological products, almost all of which were imported. TÜBİTAK MAM GMBE, which makes project applications focused on "pharmaceuticals, vaccines, diagnostic systems and biomarkers" in the field of medical biotechnology for Turkey's needs, is moving forward with these 4 main goals in medical biotechnology.
To this end, the Medical Biotechnology Center of Excellence (MediBiyo) Project is being implemented. With its 4 main units, the Center aims to produce new and biosimilar drugs, and its first priority will be to produce transgenic mice.
The Center of Excellence will also include a master cell bank, drug characterization and preclinical analysis units. A tube of cells from a fully optimized master cell bank, ready to produce drugs in the most efficient way, is worth around $25 million. Monoclonal antibody-based drugs are used effectively against cancer, rheumatism, Crohn's disease, allergies, autoimmune diseases, organ transplant rejection and many other diseases.
The second phase of the Center will focus on vaccine production. In epidemics such as bird flu, MERS, etc., large quantities of vaccines are needed in every country and these vaccines cannot be purchased from outside immediately. When countries do not have their own technologies, the procurement of these vaccines takes a long time and is very expensive. Our country, which wants to be an important player in the biotechnological pharmaceutical league, must have this technology to develop new drugs. In the second phase of the center, it is aimed to develop a new biotechnological drug to prevent the spread of cancer using this platform. With this platform, not only drugs but also antibody-based vaccines and other biotechnological products will be produced.
The third unit to be established in the Center of Excellence will be the drug characterization unit. Our country is dependent on foreign countries in this field and suffers great economic losses.
Finally, there will be a unit where preclinical analyzes are performed. This unit is designed to conduct both in vitro and in vivo analyses. Not only antibody-based but also protein-based drugs such as insulin will be produced in this Center.
