We felt the need to issue a statement about the untrue information released in the press statement on April 17, 2011 by Mr. Engelbert Tjeenk Willink, a member of the Board of Directors in the multinational reference (originator) company of Boehringer Ingelheim, which is also an active company in our country.

In Mr. Willink’s statement it is said that, the prices of generic pharmaceuticals in our country are above world standards and there is no other country in the world where the prices of generic and reference pharmaceuticals are so close to each other.

It is true that there are visible differences between reference and generic pharmaceuticals in the world. The reason for this not being present in our country is not because generic pharmaceutical prices are high in our country, but because a correction application in 2009 brought the price of reference pharmaceuticals with generics down to the level of the generic pharmaceuticals which was already low. This application in our country reduced the prices or reference pharmaceuticals which were expensive to achieve a significant savings thus implementing an intelligent application which is ahead of a number of countries. Therefore what really needs to be explained is not the application in our country but why pharmaceuticals of the same quality, safety and efficiency are being sold for such different prices in other countries.

Another topic in Mr. Willink’s statement is the claim that the pharmaceuticals patent and data exclusivity application in our country is not at world standards.

Whereas our country is respectful towards intellectual property rights and is in the position of a country which has implemented the required norms in this field by means of placing them in our legislation.

The production facilities of our national pharmaceuticals industry, which have been established with millions of TL in investments create added value, provide employment and pay taxes to make an important contribution to the country’s economy. Whereas most of the multinational reference pharmaceutical companies are only in the position of being a center for commerce. These companies do not make production based investments and their contributions to taxes and employment remain at very low levels.

In this context, it would be a better approach for reference pharmaceuticals production companies to question the contributions they make to the Turkish economy and their working models in our country rather than making misleading statements about generic pharmaceuticals producers.