In recent years, Turkey made major developments in the pharmaceutical industry. Considering the Association of Research-Based Pharmaceutical Companies’ (AIFD) “Ranking of Countries in Pharmaceutical Market” research in 2013, Turkey was in the 18th place and expected to be in the 16th by the end of 2018.

In 2006, the Social Insurance Institution, Retirement Fund and The Social Insurance Institution for Tradesmen and Craftsmen and Other Self-Employed People (Bağ-Kur) were united under a single roof named the Social Security Institution (SSI) by Law No 5502. This state-owned Institution’s main aims are to provide the social insurances such as work accident insurance, health insurance, pensioners’ insurance, survivors’ insurance, etc. and to implement the social security policies. According to AIFD’s research in 2014, the pharmaceutical services expenditure of SSI was $ 6.5 billion, and this number is expected to increase to $ 7.4 billion by the end of 2016. The result of a comparison between Turkish Statistical Institute’s “Life Satisfaction Report” and Europe Commission’s “Social Climate Report” is that while 63% of people in Europe appreciate the health services, in Turkey this percentage reaches up to 75%.

Since the ratio of imported drugs in the Turkish pharmaceutical market is 58.1%, the Turkish Ministry of Health (MoH) has adopted a policy aiming to increase the generic drug production in Turkey. The measures set with the policy are laid out in the Action Plan on the Structural Transformation of Health Industries of the 10th Development Plan set for 2014-2018. The goal is to increase the usage and exportation of domestic medical devices, materials and medicine by creating a Committee responsible for overseeing health policy making processes and establishing an independent Turkish Health Institutes Presidency, which will enhance R&D activities through various encouragements—such as the creation of clusters.

More importantly, there is a policy (No. 5) which states that “appropriate measures will be taken to give the priority to drugs and medical devices that are produced in Turkey, in the repayment and pricing policies …” Additionally, it is marked that “the imported products to be removed from the repayment list, will be determined under the condition of assuring that the treatment will be ensured.” Thus, there is a strong belief that domestically produced generic products may be added to the repayment list to the detriment of imported products.

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