Bülent Denkdemir, CEO of Trustlife Ventures: At Trustlife, we carry out drug development studies using very advanced algorithms based on human data and artificial intelligence.
We are developing Turkey's first original and innovative pharmaceutical molecules.
Mr Bülent, we would like to start by getting to know you. Could you tell us a little about your academic and professional life?
I graduated from Istanbul Technical University, Department of Industrial Engineering. Afterwards, I completed my master's degree in Business Administration at Sabancı University and my doctorate in management at Istanbul University. I started my professional life in 2000 at Arthur Andersen international management consultancy company. Between 2002-2013, I worked at Alliance Healthcare, a Turkish-British partnership in the field of pharmaceutical distribution. I was the Chief Executive Officer of this company, which operates in the field of pharmaceutical distribution in Turkey, Egypt and Algeria with 11 thousand employees and has an annual turnover of approximately 6 billion dollars, between 2005-2013. I also simultaneously served as a Member of the European Executive Board of Alliance Boots, the parent company of the British partner, between 2010-2013. Between 2014 and 2021, I served as the Chairman of the Executive Board of BMC Defence and Automotive Industry, a Turkish-Qatari joint venture. During this period, BMC, with a total of 3,700 employees, 900 of whom are R&D and engineering staff, has achieved significant successes, especially in increasing the localisation rate of land vehicles in the defence industry from 30 percent to 80 percent. Simultaneously with this task, I took part in the founding management team of the TOGG national automobile project in the 2017-2021 period and served as a Board Member. Since mid-2021, our Trustlife journey in the field of national drug development has started and continues with great excitement. Of course, when talking about Trustlife, it would not be right to talk only about myself, we are walking this path together with a very valuable team of founding partners and our valuable scientific researcher staff.
We would like to hear about your company Trustlife Ventures. Could you tell us about its establishment story, activities and achievements?
Trustlife Ventures was established in 2021 by several founding partners with international experience in their fields to develop our country's first original and innovative molecules in the pharmaceutical field. Turkey is one of the largest pharmaceutical markets in the world with a population of 85 million and an annual consumption of approximately 2.5 billion boxes of medicines. However, for years, in our country, only generic molecules developed by international companies have been produced in similar equivalents after the patent protection periods are completed. There is nothing wrong with this, but our country, which has such a large market volume and an educated young population, should also be able to serve the world's humanity by developing innovative pharmaceutical molecules and see the economic benefits of this. The size of the world pharmaceutical market is approximately 1.5 trillion dollars. The annual R&D amount spent on pharmaceuticals in the world is approximately 200 billion dollars. Trustlife is a platform established to bring together the qualified scientists of our country in this field and turn them into products. Currently, drug candidate studies for 10 different diseases, mostly in the field of cancer, are continuing within Trustlife. These include diseases such as brain cancer, pancreatic cancer, prostate cancer, colon cancer, muscle wasting and Alzheimer's disease. Three of our molecules will complete animal studies in April 2024 and will be ready for the phase-1 phase. We are proud that Turkcell, the technology leader of our country, is one of our important investors in this strategic journey and we thank the entire Turkcell management for their trust and support.
How do your R&D processes work? Which technologies do you utilise and how?
In previous years, the journey of a drug in the world from the day R&D investments started to the day it was licensed and entered the market took approximately 14 years and very high budgets were spent in this process. However, in the last 10 years, we see that a new pharmaceutical R&D process based on big data and artificial intelligence has emerged in some scientific centres around the world. Our scientific team is led by Prof. Dr. Adil Mardinoğlu. After studying Electronics Engineering at ITU, he worked on systems biology and molecular biology at the world's leading universities in the field of health in Ireland, Sweden and the UK. At the end of 2023, he was awarded the 100th Anniversary TÜBİTAK Special Award. In this sense, Trustlife carries out drug development studies using very advanced algorithms based on human data and artificial intelligence. Afterwards, we carry out the laboratory studies of the molecule candidates we obtain within the scope of these studies in our own R&D centre in Istanbul. Our R&D centre employs 50 researchers specialised in fields such as chemistry, computational chemistry, biology and pharmacy, most of whom hold doctoral degrees. The new generation technologies based on human data will continue to develop. The 14-year process in traditional methods has now been reduced to 8 years. I think it will continue to get shorter and cheaper in the coming years. We aim to be one of the pioneers of this field in the world.
What do you think are the needs of R&D companies/initiatives in terms of innovation in your sector and in general? What should be considered in terms of team, technology, investment, etc. to feed this ecosystem?
Our country has young and highly qualified human resources and over 200 universities. Therefore, it should be able to produce much more new generation technology. However, we see that a significant portion of this potential has not yet been realised. In my opinion, the reason for this is the lack of business models that will enable R&D activities to turn into final products. To give an example from our own business, in order for qualified scientific studies in the field of pharmaceutical development to reach the end product, that is, economic value, four main elements must come together and remain harmoniously together throughout the journey. These are science, funding, management skills and infrastructure. Trustlife was established by bringing these four elements together. While financially supporting the pharmaceutical molecules we invest in, we also require all R&D work to be carried out in our own R&D centre. We also manage all projects with detailed monthly, quarterly and annual performance indicators.
As Trustlife Ventures, which topics will stand out on your agenda in the medium and long term?
Above all, our main goal will always be to serve human health and we will continue to develop innovative medicines in this way. In the words of one of my favourite elders in the pharmaceutical industry; "Blessed is he who is a panacea for a problem..." On the other hand, while doing so, we will continue to invest in big data and artificial intelligence technologies, and we will continue to strengthen our partnerships with the valuable scientists of our country.
