We Conducted a Pleasant Interview with Mr. Cem Öztürk

We Conducted a Pleasant Interview with Mr. Cem Öztürk We made an interview with Head of Foundation Sanofi Turkey, Middle East & Africa - Country Lead Sanofi Turkey Mr. Cem Öztürk about the sector and the company. Cem Öztürk told us how the pandemic went for the pharmaceutical industry and the work of the company. Happy reading.

Could you tell our readers about yourself?

I graduated from Galatasaray University, Department of Business Administration in 1998. After graduation, I completed my MBA at Sorbonne University. Then I started my career in the banking industry in 2000. Since joining Sanofi in 2002, I have taken on several different leadership roles at the company's country level and in international organizations. I was appointed CFO for Romania and Moldova in 2007 and worked for four years. I returned to Turkey in 2011 as Business Excellence Director. I took on management responsibilities for the Pharmacy Group Sales Team, Supply Chain, Hospital Group Key Units, respectively. In 2014, I was appointed Specialist and Primary Care Business Unit Director and Leader of Generic Divisions, managing a team of 300 people. In 2015, I was appointed General Manager of Bangkok and Country Chair for Thailand and Myanmar with an overseas assignment. In 2018, I started working as Sanofi Turkey Country Chair and General Manager. In 2019, the Levant region and Iran were added to my area of responsibility. Currently, I am working as Country Lead Turkey and Foundation Community Head for Turkey, Africa and Middle East.

Could you tell us about Sanofi's activities in the sector and operation structure in Turkey?

We are a global company with a strong local presence that contributes to Turkey's healthy future by investing, producing and creating employment in the country. With investments exceeding USD 1 billion, we are the pharmaceutical company with the highest investment among global pharmaceutical companies in Turkey. We were the first company to invest in local vaccine production in Turkey. At the same time, Turkey is the first Sanofi country with this kind of technology transfer. Thanks to this technology transfer in the field of vaccines, 68 million doses of combined childhood vaccines have been produced in Turkey and 99% of children in Turkey have been protected against vaccine-preventable diseases. This vaccine represents Turkey's first biotechnology production in its field. Our manufacturing facility in Lüleburgaz is today the third largest production facility among Sanofi's 70 production centers worldwide in terms of production capacity. Our factory alone accounted for 15 percent of total pharmaceutical industry production in Turkey in 2021. We export 11 percent of our total production to 49 countries, including Germany, England, France, Australia and Japan. It is a great honor for us to contribute to our country's economy by producing 86 percent of Sanofi Turkey's product portfolio on a box basis in these facilities.

Sanofi recently shared its renewed brand identity and purpose with the public. Can you share this transformation with us?

As Sanofi, we are undergoing an exciting corporate transformation. We introduced our new corporate brand supporting the modernization and transformation of our company. We started work in December 2019 and announced it to the world in February this year. This evolution represents our ambition to transform medical practice and our purpose to pursue the miracles of science to improve people's lives. Over the last 50 years, we have made many discoveries that improve human life, from diabetes to cardiovascular diseases, from rare diseases to infectious diseases. For years, Sanofi's commitment to public health has protected hundreds of millions of people against the flu annually and led to the eradication of polio from the world, while the company's scientific vision enables it to offer innovative healthcare solutions for treating inflammatory diseases. This transformation sends a powerful message about who we are and what we aim to achieve: We pursue the miracles of science to improve human life. We know that new treatments for diseases are always possible, and we are never satisfied with existing ones. We continue our activities with the belief that better treatments can always be discovered, with curiosity and the desire to innovate, always advancing science forward.

You announced that with this renewal, you are bringing different departments and companies within Sanofi under one roof, correct?

Yes, since our establishment we have had a wide variety of cultures, identities and brands within our structure. Sanofi's new brand builds on this rich heritage and brings its diverse history together for the first time under a single common identity. Accordingly, the company's Sanofi Pasteur business unit, which focuses on vaccines, and Sanofi Genzyme, which focuses on specialty treatments, and all previously acquired brands are now united under a single Sanofi name and brand. For many years, these brands have become symbols of the impact of innovation on human life. Thinking and acting around a new common purpose and identity as one company will enable Sanofi to more strategically direct its resources toward producing key innovations, positioning the company to create greater impact for patients.

With the COVID-19 pandemic, the importance of the pharmaceutical and vaccine industry has emerged once again. At this point, can you share some information about Sanofi's efforts?

First of all, I must proudly say that we have been one of the companies at the forefront of this struggle from the very beginning. Today, two-thirds of our medicines and vaccines are defined by the World Health Organization as medicines of vital importance. During the pandemic, we continued our activities uninterruptedly at our production and distribution centers, particularly our factory in Lüleburgaz and our Tuzla distribution center. Our global vaccine studies also began actively from the very start of the pandemic. One of these studies involved joining forces with GSK for a common goal: to develop an adjuvant vaccine against COVID-19 and produce enough for millions of people. Sanofi and GSK have now applied for regulatory approval, presenting data from both the immunity-boosting booster vaccine and Phase 3 efficacy trials as the basis for regulatory filings for the COVID-19 vaccine. In parallel with these efforts, we continue to contribute to global public health needs by producing up to half a billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines for three pharmaceutical companies.

Could you tell us about the place of R&D in your overall activities? What does R&D mean for Sanofi? How extensive is it? Is there a particular R&D project that you expect to have significant impact in the coming period?

Sanofi, with its mission to improve human life, prioritizes the most critical health needs and allocates 15 percent of its worldwide sales to R&D annually. As of December 2021, our company's R&D portfolio includes 91 projects, 34 of which are in Phase 3. The progress of our work is also shared transparently on Sanofi's website.

How is Sanofi's approach to social responsibility shaped? Can you tell us about your social responsibility projects in Turkey?

We bring Sanofi's global Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) commitments to life in our country as well, and we continue our leadership role in CSR with great effort through #wecandomore. At Sanofi Turkey, sustainability is integrated into all our business priorities. Our new roadmap and commitments, organized under the titles of Access to Healthcare, R&D for Unmet Needs, Healthy Planet and Inclusive Workplace, directly contribute to 13 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals announced by the United Nations. We are well aware of the responsibilities of being a good corporate citizen. As Sanofi Turkey, we contribute to the "continuity of health" through corporate social responsibility programs we have been running for many years to help address social problems. With our Diabetes at School Program, which is now in its 11th year, we work to raise awareness of diabetes among students, parents and teachers, and to improve the quality of life of children with diabetes in schools. We also undertake initiatives on equal opportunities and education that will contribute to social development. Our "Women Leaders of the Future" project, which we have been successfully running for 11 years in cooperation with KAGIDER, is one example. Through this program, we have trained 1,250 young women and awarded them the "Women Leaders of the Future" certificate. 92 percent of young graduates continue to advance their careers and make us proud by participating in business life.

What are your sustainability goals? What actions are you taking toward your carbon neutral target?

Supporting the ecological needs of our world is of great importance in our "Healthy Planet" priority, which is one of our company's sustainability pillars. By taking an important step in this direction in Turkey and as a result of our investments, we switched to 100 percent renewable electrical energy at our Lüleburgaz factory as of the beginning of 2020. We then began using 100 percent renewable electricity at Sanofi's Tuzla Warehouse and Sanofi Head Office. In order to minimize the environmental impacts of our operations and production globally, we have set concrete targets: to produce 100 percent blister-free vaccines by 2027, to use 100 percent ecological designs in all our new product packaging by 2025, to switch to 100 percent renewable energy sources in all our production facilities by 2030, and to make our vehicle fleet 100 percent carbon neutral by 2030.