Interview with Tanju Cepheli, Pharma Solutions Division Director at BASF TR

BASF Turkey Pharmaceutical Solutions Division Director Tanju Cepheli spoke with us in an engaging interview about the work undertaken to address challenges in the pharmaceutical sector. Cepheli also explained digitalisation solutions for the pharmaceutical industry.

Mr. Tanju Cepheli, could you tell our readers about yourself and your professional background?

I completed my business administration studies at Fachhochschule für Betriebswirtschaft in Germany and have held management positions in the sales divisions of BASF's cosmetics, food, animal feed additives, flavours and pharmaceuticals departments since 1991, including global positions. I currently work as Pharmaceutical Solutions Division Director and am responsible for Turkey, the Middle East, Africa and Russia. I also serve on the Board of ISPE (International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering), as Vice Chair of the Board of GTBD (Food Supplements and Nutrition Association) and am a member of working groups at various professional organisations such as TÜSİAD.

Could you provide information about BASF Turkey?

BASF, which made its first sale in Turkey in 1880 and has a 140-year history, continues to supply chemical products to many industrial sectors and has continued to contribute to the Turkish economy since the founding of the Republic. In 1969, BASF established a partnership with Sümerbank with the primary aim of supplying products to primary industrial sectors such as textiles, paper, paints and leather, and subsequently commissioned its first factory in Gebze in 1970, where textiles, leather, detergents and construction chemicals were produced. With the commissioning of this factory, BASF began producing world-standard products in Turkey, contributing to the development of many sectors and the Turkish economy. BASF's head office in Istanbul, 8 other offices located in various cities in Turkey and 6 production facilities employ approximately 740 people. BASF has 6 production facilities in Turkey in Dilovası, Çayırova, Trabzon, Adana and 2 in Gebze, and the areas of operation include chemicals, plastics, dispersions and pigments, maintenance chemicals, speciality chemicals and crop protection. BASF products and solutions are used in a wide range of sectors including electrical and electronics, automotive, construction, detergents and cleaning, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics, and animal feed, agriculture and food. As BASF Turkey, we will also develop customised solutions for our customers with our Innovation Centre, which will become operational in 2020.

As BASF serves many sectors, what would you like to say about the pharmaceutical raw materials category? Which products stand out at BASF in the pharmaceutical sector?

As BASF, we play an important role in meeting the needs of the pharmaceutical sector and in the development of medicines that will contribute to the treatment of patients. We produce active pharmaceutical ingredients and various excipients for the production and development of medicines in solid oral, semi-solid, soft capsule, solution and suspension dosage forms. We have products in the biotechnology field, which has shown development in recent years, and we continue our work to provide more diverse solutions in this portfolio in the coming period.

Could you tell us about the work you have undertaken to address current and future challenges in the pharmaceutical sector?

We share our knowledge and experience accumulated through years of expertise in pharmaceutical development and our pharmaceutical solutions with companies working in this field. We have many articles, posters and books containing findings and information obtained from our own experimental work. In particular, there is data available that can provide solutions to difficulties that may be encountered and needed in the development field. We share this information with our customers in verbal and written form. We continuously support developing companies by providing the technical training they need. With our experienced technical and sales teams, we assist our customers on the topics they require. We see new developments in the pharmaceutical sector every day. Because of very detailed examinations in the registration phase and strict supervision, the introduction of a new product to the market and for patient use can take a long time. For this reason, continuous monitoring of projects in the development phase and the ability to predict future technologies and difficulties in the development stage is very important. As BASF, we have close collaborations with universities and the pharmaceutical industry. The problems we see in projects there actually reflect future challenges. From this point of view, our new product portfolio and R&D work are shaped according to needs to provide solutions to the problems we see. The best examples of this are virtual assistants provided for use within the scope of digitalisation and new products we are preparing to offer in the biotechnology field. Additionally, for some projects we are conducting with companies in Turkey, we carry out development work in our laboratory in Germany.

Innovation, speed to market and cost-effectiveness are very important criteria for pharmaceutical companies. How is this process progressing at BASF?

One of the areas where BASF is strongest and which we attach importance to is innovation. With innovative products developed considering the market's needs, we contribute to pharmaceutical development while also meeting the need for simplification of production. For example, we produce excipients such as Ludipress, Ludipress LCE and Ludiflash, which contain combinations of materials with different functions and are suitable for direct compression processes used for mixing raw materials and then pressing in tablet form within solid pharmaceutical production processes, and the active pharmaceutical ingredient Ibuprofen DC 85 W. In this way, we support pharmaceutical companies by simplifying their existing processes and providing solutions to capacity and production speed problems they experience in production areas. Another important stage that determines the speed of market entry is the registration process. For our high-quality raw materials, we can provide all types of documents, certificates and declarations that may be needed in this process in domestic and foreign markets. Considering drug costs and financial situations as well as market dynamics, we offer competitive and appropriate prices to our customers.

What is your perspective on R&D? How do you define the importance of R&D for BASF Turkey?

BASF, which has 155 years of commercial history in the world and 140 years in Turkey, as well as over 50 years of production history, has always attached great importance to innovation since its founding. BASF has R&D centres in approximately 70 locations worldwide, with more than 11,000 employees in this field. Globally, BASF invested approximately 2 billion euros in R&D activities in 2018 alone and was granted 900 new patents. As BASF Turkey, we always aim to develop innovative products that serve customers' needs and desires. Our R&D centre in Germany works on the development of innovative products with a customer focus in this regard. In particular, R&D work continues continuously to keep pace with the pharmaceutical sector, which is constantly evolving and using new technologies. Generally, R&D activities in the field of generic medicine development take place in pharmaceutical companies in Turkey. One of the obstacles frequently encountered by generic companies during pharmaceutical development is patents published by originators. To overcome these patents and obtain generic medicines, new products and innovative formulations are needed within the scope of R&D work. In this context, BASF contributes to the development of generic medicines with the same efficacy and quality by offering alternative excipients with various functions and innovative pharmaceutical solutions. Our technical team working in Turkey continuously visits R&D centres to make presentations on new technologies, pharmaceutical solutions and latest developments.

Could you tell us about your technology platforms? What is the role of your technology platform in the production phase?

BASF's pharmaceutical solutions portfolio includes over 400 raw materials with many different functions. To facilitate the use of this portfolio for customers and to classify raw materials according to their functions, we offer 6 different technology platforms: fast and modified release, solubility enhancement, semi-solids, soft capsules, biological solutions and active pharmaceutical ingredients. The fast and modified release platform generally contains raw materials with binding, dispersing, coating, moisture protection, lubricating and release profile adjustment functions required for the development of solid oral dosage forms. In the solubility enhancement platform, there are excipients that can be used for all dosage forms that increase the solubility of active pharmaceutical ingredients in classes 2 and 4 of the biopharmaceutical classification system. In other platforms, we include excipients needed in the development of semi-solid, soft capsule and biotechnological products. As BASF, we also offer our customers an active pharmaceutical ingredient platform that includes Ibuprofen, in the production of which we are pioneering in the world, as well as products such as Dexpanthenol, Menthol and Omega. Pharmaceutical companies can select the products they want using technology platforms through their R&D, production, process improvement and business development departments and can benefit from the pharmaceutical solutions we provide through the platforms.

What are the latest products you have introduced to the sector and what technology and features does it have?

As BASF, our Soluplus product, which we introduced to the market in recent years, is offered for use as a solubility enhancer in pharmaceutical formulations with solubility problems. In particular, considering that a large portion of molecules developed today or whose patent periods have expired have low solubility, it emerges that it is an innovative product for addressing existing needs. Although the product was designed to be suitable for melt extrusion processes, studies conducted in BASF laboratories and by universities showed that it can also be applied using conventional production methods and good results can be obtained. Recently, as BASF Pharmaceutical Department, three virtual assistants have been made available to our customers within the scope of digitalisation. There is a virtual formulation assistant called ZoomLab that makes formulation and production method recommendations for development work in R&D departments. Thanks to this easy-to-use and accessible software, waste of raw materials and loss of time resulting from the trial and error method applied are prevented and fast results are obtained. RegXcellence software is a virtual assistant where you can directly and quickly download all explanations, declarations, certificates and similar documents needed for BASF raw materials contained in products developed during the registration phase. This software eliminates the loss of time due to waiting, which is very important in terms of rapid market entry, and allows you to download the document you want instantly. Another software, MyProductWorld, is an application where you can create sample orders and access all technical information about the raw material you are looking for. If you are a BASF customer, all you need to do to take advantage of all these capabilities is to register on the site.

Could you provide information about the product you will offer to the pharmaceutical sector in the coming years? What are the advantages this product will bring to your brand and the sector?

The virtual assistants we mentioned above, which are already in use, will be further developed and made much more functional in the future. Currently, a specific module of our formulation assistant for solid dosage forms is active. In the future, we will provide you with an assistant that gives formulation recommendations with very high precision for all dosage forms. Beyond this, biotechnology has occupied a significant place on Turkey's agenda in recent years. We will support pharmaceutical companies with different and innovative products in this field. At the same time, within the framework of simple and rapid production, we will introduce innovative products in our co-processed product portfolio that combines various functional excipients needed by the pharmaceutical sector under a single raw material roof. Our goal is always to place the customer at the focal point and innovate according to needs and requirements.

Since 1994, you have carried out very important activities on sustainability. Could you share your 25-year sustainability journey with our readers?

As BASF, since our founding we have placed the protection of natural resources and a sustainable way of doing business at the centre of our company operations for over 150 years. Today, we view sustainability, which is an integral part of our corporate identity, as an absolute necessity in the modern business world. In line with our mission to "create chemistry for a sustainable future," we aim to contribute to the world for a liveable future. We achieve this goal by creating chemistry for our customers and society while using existing resources in the best way and producing responsibly. As BASF, as a result of the global approach we have developed, all sustainability activities we conduct around the world are managed from our headquarters in Ludwigshafen, Germany. These activities are continuously recorded, reported and our goals are renewed accordingly. Under the roof of BASF, the world's leading chemical company, not only our products but also all our production processes are designed to protect the climate and ensure the continuity of the world's natural resources. In all our activities, we carry the responsibility of future generations. With this awareness, we offer products and solutions aimed at human health, nutrition, clean water needs and reducing carbon dioxide emissions. In addition to our products and solutions that provide sustainability solutions worldwide, our community sustainability projects focus on education and children.