ANKARA

Leading Turkish pharmaceutical firm Abdi Ibrahim on Thursday announced that the Turkish Health Ministry had approved the company to manufacture and fill vials of inactive as well as mRNA-based vaccines against the novel coronavirus.

"We are currently capable of producing 20 million vaccines," said the company's chairman, Nezih Barut in a written statement, underlining that the firm had the technology and infrastructure needed for vaccine production and vial-filling.

He said Abdi Ibrahim was also prepared to provide additional investment on short notice if the production of greater amounts of COVID-19 vaccines is required.

"This permission given by the Ministry of Health as a result of the inspections is proof that we can produce vaccines at world standards," he added, noting the company's investments in biotechnology, which he described as the future of the pharmaceutical sector.

"Our biotechnological drug production facility AbdiBio, which we completed in 2018, is the most important step we have taken in this regard," he said.

A leading pharmaceutical company in Turkey, Abdi Ibrahim started as a neighborhood pharmacy in 1912 and opened its factory in 1919.