Study indicates Turkey should follow Irish lead

A report by an Istanbul, Turkey-based economic research consultancy has suggested that the Turkish government should take note of the recent success of Ireland and intro-duce regulatory reforms. Failure to do so would confirm outsiders views that Turkey's poor reputation for trans-parency and accountability are holding back integration with the European Union.

The research was conducted by Istanbul Economics Con-sultancy on behalf of the Istanbul-headquartered Asso-ciation of Research-Based Pharmaceutical Companies (AIFD). It was carried out by surveying the trade associa-tion's members, most of which are foreign drug majors, such as French world number three drugmaker, Sanofi-Aventis, Swiss giant Novartis and the Anglo-Swedish AstraZeneca.

The study's authors found that in several areas, notably for reimbursement and marketing approvals, the Turkish regulatory system is unclear, inconsistent and at times slow.