GE Healthcare Launches New Research Scheme in Turkey

GE Healthcare’s Life Sciences business has launched a new research scheme to help foster Turkish bioprocessing development and manufacturing through the launch of its latest Fast Trak Bioprocessing Technology and Training Laboratory in Istanbul, according to a March 29, 2016 press announcement. Based in GE’s Turkey Innovation Center, the R&D laboratory will help support the region’s rapidly growing biopharmaceutical and biotech industry.

According to a report from Deloitte, Turkey has Europe’s sixth largest pharmaceutical industry and is poised to become a significant player in the global biopharmaceutical market. The country’s vision for its healthcare industry includes a strategy by Turkey’s Scientific and Technological Research Council to support R&D and address skill shortages through a range of grant schemes and industry-academia collaborations. GE notes its research scheme, which was launched on March 24, 2016, sits within this framework by offering support for academic collaborations through access to its new technology and training facility.

The Laboratory is equipped with GE’s bioprocessing and research technologies and supported by a team of local GE bioprocessing experts. The facility is already available to customers in the region for training and process development through GE’s Fast Trak training program, and will now be made available to applicants from universities and research institutions to support their research projects.

“The share of high-tech products in our exports is around 3-4 percent. We should increase this ratio to the level of 15 percent. For this purpose, we should focus on increasing the added value work in the well-established sectors and we need to take serious steps in new-generation sectors,” said Professor Hasan Ali Çelik, deputy minister of science, industry and technology, at the inauguration of the facility. “In this respect, the pharmaceutical industry stands out here as a critical sector.”

Source: GE Healthcare