Five years after striking a biosimilars alliance with Iceland’s Alvotech, Turkish firm Abdi İbrahim – which boasts the country’s “largest biotech pharmaceutical manufacturing facility” – has shaken hands with Spanish developer mAbxience for technology transfer of an undisclosed oncology biosimilar.

In a move to take its pipeline of biosimilar monoclonal antibodies global, Alvotech has struck a deal with Abdi Ibrahim that will give it localization advantages in Turkey.

Turkey will found a venture capital fund to acquire promising pharmaceutical start-ups and to support Turkish researchers in the US. The initiative comes from the industry, with support from the Turkish government. It is expected to gather pace after the elections on June 24.

The Turkish pharmaceutical market reached $5.6bn in 2017. Despite strong competition from multinationals, Abdi Ibrahim, a local company, was market leader last year with a turnover of $380m. It was followed by Novartis and Pfizer.