With its collaborations in the field of clinical research, primarily in the fields of Oncology, Cardiology, Infection and Vaccination, Ankara City Hospital and MSD Turkiye, which contributes to Turkey’s access to innovative treatments, came together for scientific cooperation as a ‘Center of Excellence’ in the field of clinical research.
In the meeting held with the participation of Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tolga Karakan, President, Turkish Medicines and Medical Devices Agency, Dr. Instructor Member Aziz Ahmet Surel, Chief Physician of Ankara City Hospital, and Gözde Güllüoğlu, Managing Director at MSD Turkiye, Betül Erdoğan, Clinical Research Director, MSD Turkiye, Middle East, Egypt, it was announced that scientific cooperation was signed in the studies to be carried out in the field of clinical research.
Speaking at the ceremony, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tolga Karakan, President, Turkish Medicines and Medical Devices Agency (TITCK) emphasized that the Covid-19 vaccine studies brought the importance of Phase-1 clinical research centers back to the agenda. Karakan said, “When the vaccine studies came to the agenda, the need for a Phase-1 center was put forward and Phase-1 centers were opened rapidly in many parts of Turkey. As an institution, we tried to keep the standards of these centers as high as possible. These standards were supposed to be international; so that the work done here can be valid in the international arena.”
Talking about the necessity of human resources trained in this field for clinical research to be successful, Assoc. Dr. Tolga Karakan continued his speech as follows, “As an institution, we take care to employ our medical pharmacologists in the Clinical Research Department of our institution. We are trying to send these friends to our centers for practical and educational purposes at the beginning of Phase-1 studies. It is very important for medical pharmacologists to work in these centers after their training. Our clinical practice as a country is in a very good condition; however, when we come to the documentation, we are weak on some issues. In fact, the main element of clinical research is documentation. Documentation needs to be kept very well. We believe that with this project, an awareness will be created. In other words, when our colleagues working in our institution land on the field, we think that the operation will accelerate with the transfer of information within the institution.”
Thanked the doctors and staff working in Ankara City Hospital management and Clinical Research Unit for their efforts, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tolga Karakan, President, Turkish Medicines and Medical Devices Agency (TITCK) concluded, “Hopefully, more work will come to these centers in the coming days. Our patients will have greater access to these innovative treatments.”
Dr. Instructor Member Aziz Ahmet Surel, Chief Physician of Ankara City Hospital drew attention to the following in his speech, “We have a Martyr Eczacı Taki Türkyılmaz Clinical Research Center, which we have established for the follow-up of Phase 2-3-4 clinical trials that we have recently put into service. The reason for the existence of this clinical research center is that we have created the process of controlling, authorizing and conducting clinical researches in a more comprehensive way. 166 clinical studies have been and continue to be done on our campus. Again, with the momentum brought by vaccine studies, we have a Phase-1 Clinical Research Center in a separate building. Here we are currently conducting phase studies of our national vaccines. Our other two structures in this area are; One is our Oncology Clinical Research Center in our Oncology Hospital. We have a general Clinical Research Center, the other of which has started operating recently, and which carries out its activities under the control of our Internal Medicine Clinic within the General Hospital. For Phase 1, we have a 24-bed center that carries all kinds of international standards. We have 2 satellite centers on campus to carry out Phase 2-3-4 studies, and these are open for studies to be carried out in cooperation with our internal medicine and oncology clinics. There are 7 hospitals on the campus, and a clinical research follow-up center that monitors the clinical research processes carried out in all of these hospitals is also available in our center opened in the name of Martyr Eczacı Taki Türkyılmaz. This is the beginning for us; We believe that our country will go a long way at this point. The biggest capital of an institution is its employees who dream for that institution in their own field. We have tried to avoid any of our colleagues’ dreams about their profession in the place where we work as much as possible. Let them dream, we wanted to make it easy for those dreams to come true. We have a highly professional team. As a manager, my only dream is for this capacity to work at the highest rate in order to contribute to our country, our people and our institution at the highest rate. I think we can achieve these goals in a very short time with cooperation.”
Pointing out that they aim to provide the society with early access to innovative treatments and vaccines, Gözde Güllüoğlu, Managing Director at MSD Turkiye, said, “I hope that the scientific cooperation in clinical studies with Ankara City Hospital, which will be carried out with a priority in the fields of Oncology, Cardiology, Effects and Vaccination, will make a significant contribution to the R&D activities of our country in the field of health. With this project we have implemented, we are working to reveal our potential in the field of clinical research with the cooperation of State – City Hospitals – Industry in our country. We are ready to share all our knowledge and experience in order to strengthen the research and development structure required for drug discovery in Turkey and to support clinical studies to be placed on the right ground. I sincerely believe that we will get the results of our new cooperation as soon as possible so that the society can lead a healthier life and reach innovative treatments earlier.”
Betül Erdoğan, Clinical Research Director, MSD Turkiye, Middle East, Egypt said, “With the scientific cooperation we have made with Ankara City Hospital, I believe that we will make an important contribution to issues such as increasing the contribution to the development of new drugs and vaccines, providing access to treatments and vaccines, and producing high-quality data.”
