When the coronavirus pandemic started gripping the world in 2020, Turkey launched an initiative to develop its own vaccine against the deadly infection. In 20 months, it managed to ready it. The count down for Turkovac, jointly developed by Erciyes University and the Health Ministry's Presidency of Turkish Health Institutes (TÜSEB), has begun and the vaccine rollout for public use is expected to start within weeks.

One of the prominent figures behind the inactive vaccine, TÜSEB President Erhan Akdoğan, recounted the work that went into its development last year as the world scrambled to get vaccinated. "We were looking for ways to develop our own vaccine in the first days of the pandemic and TÜSEB actively supported seven different vaccine studies. Turkovac, developed by professor Aykut Özdarendeli and his team of researchers was the first to reach the final stage," he said.

The vaccine received emergency use approval earlier this month and will join Pfizer-BioNTech's messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine and Sinovac's inactive jab already in use in the country, which reached new heights in its vaccination program after boosting its vaccine imports last summer.

Akdoğan says Turkey is now among nine countries in the world to develop their own vaccine. "This is a historic accomplishment, both for our progress in the field of biotechnology and in coronavirus vaccine. Turkovac will pioneer in the field, for development of other vaccines and biotechnology products and their production," he told Anadolu Agency (AA) on Wednesday.

"Developing your own biomedical products, from medicines to vaccines is a strategic issue. Just like it is important to cut off dependence on the defense industry, it is important to be scientifically advanced enough to develop your own medical product. In this sense, Turkovac is a turning point for us," he said.

The development of the vaccine started with preclinical trials, including animal testing, before switching to three-phase human trials once it was granted approval by ethics boards and the health authorities. The last phase began in June across 28 provinces with studies on unvaccinated volunteers and people in need of reminder or third doses. Though Phase 3 trials still continue in some vaccination centers, the overall results proved the vaccine's efficacy and safety for public inoculation, Akdoğan said.

During the human trials, oversight committees monitored the side effects of the vaccine, as well as its efficacy and safety. "The approval was possible only after their findings. Turkovac was also compared with other inactive vaccines (Sinovac) and as a matter of fact, it was more efficient compared to it," Akdoğan said. He explained that the trial was split into two parts, in one group volunteers who had been vaccinated with two doses of the Sinovac jab were administered Turkovac as a third dose, while in the other group, volunteers were administered a third dose of Sinovac. "We found that (increase in) antibody levels were as effective as the other vaccine and based on some parameters even more effective in some fields, against the delta variant," he said.

Currently, about 150,000 doses of the vaccine have been delivered to health authorities and TÜSEB, in cooperation with a pharmaceutical company. Plans to expand production are underway. "Along with development, we had a process running parallel with it and that is, the production, which required a major health infrastructure and equipment. All these are available now. Vaccination will start at city hospitals soon and the production is underway. The production capacity will be expanded day by day," Akdoğan said.

Turkey, an advocate for equal access to vaccines, also plans to deliver Turkovac to other countries. Akdoğan said while the focus is currently on national supplies, plans are being made for deliveries abroad. "We were in touch with several countries including Azerbaijan, Pakistan and Kyrgyzstan for joint scientific study already and will soon start delivering vaccines to Azerbaijan soon, not for mass vaccination for now but for contributing to scientific work for vaccine development there," he said. Turkey has also applied for the vaccine's international recognition through the World Health Organization (WHO).

Akdoğan assured the public about the safety of Turkovac and urged citizens not to hesitate. Vaccine hesitancy is a major issue for the country striving to attain mass immunity levels to stave off the pandemic. "Personally, I will have my fourth dose from Turkovac, after having three shots of Sinovac's vaccine. Turkovac is based on a technology that has been around for a century. But it is not an outdated technology."

"On the contrary, we have a vaccine with vast scientific data behind it. You can have knowledge in advance about potential side effects and about its efficacy as this is a technology long known to the scientific community. We see people losing their lives as they are not vaccinated, we see patients suffering from severe cases of COVID-19 because of this. Getting vaccinated is crucial not only for your own health but also to protect your loved ones from the disease," he said.