Elif Çelik, executive vice president of the Healthcare Division of Eczacıbaşı Group, explains the rationale behind the group’s divestment of its generics arm and its new strategy to establish itself as a holistic healthcare organization, focused on bringing innovative solutions to Turkey through diverse partnership opportunities. Çelik also discusses the shifting attributes of Turkey’s healthcare environment and why stakeholders should not be discouraged by temporary challenges.   When we last met in 2015, you were heading Eczacıbaşı’s joint venture with Baxter, which subsequently became the Eczacıbaşı-Shire joint venture. Now, you are heading the entire Healthcare division of the Group. Could you tell us more about this division’s scope and your strategy? Eczacıbaşı is a global company with over EUR 2.5 billion in turnover in 2017, and – currently – the healthcare division accounts for about 12 percent of the group’s total turnover. From a domestic perspective, the division accounts for 20 percent of value approximately, while - before divesting our generics arm - it accounted for over 30 percent of the whole group. The reason behind this divestment was to focus on bringing additional value and solutions to the unmet needs of the market. Under the newly shaped healthcare division, we are essentially focusing on specialty care, innovation, rare diseases, and consumer well-being segments. Our focus is on human life; putting patients at the core to support the entire lifecycle from wellbeing to early diagnostics and treatment. For example, we are increasing our focus on wellbeing with new brands natural products, vitamins, and other supplements to contribute to healthier lives. That’s an addition to treating diseases - a major change in strategy compared to the past. We are also operating in diagnostics alongside our radiopharmaceutical company, Eczacıbaşı Monrol, which is highly involved in the oncology world, where there is an increasing trend in not only screening, but also treating localized tumours with radiopharmaceuticals. In this regard, Eczacıbaşı Monrol will be positioned as an integrated oncology company servicing both diagnostics and treatment of cancer. With our joint venture Eczacıbaşı-Shire, we’re also focused heavily on immunology and rare diseases.   Eczacıbaşı has been known for establishing joint ventures in Turkey, is this still a relevant initiative to the company? Absolutely! Our group is an excellent example of this, not only in healthcare and pharmaceuticals, as Eczacıbaşı partners with different stakeholders across all our areas of operations. This is our business model and it has always been successful for us, but also beneficial to Turkey.

Eczacıbaşı partners with different stakeholders across all our areas of operations. This is our business model and it has always been successful for us, but also beneficial to Turkey