The International Finance Corporation (IFC) has announced a joint financing package of $712.67m (€600m) for Aspen Pharmacare to support the Covid-19 vaccines production.
The organisation with German development finance institute DEG, the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) and French development institution Proparco is jointly providing the long-term financing package to the company.
The funding packaging, which is subject to the fulfilment of certain conditions, will include $185.29m (€156m) from Proparco, $171m (€144m) from DEG, $237.55m (€200m) to be provided by IFC, $118.7m (€100m) from the US DFC.
This package will support Aspen in the production of Covid-19 vaccines, and other therapies in Africa as well as in the emerging markets.
It will also help the company to increase its vaccines production capacity with Stringent Regulatory Authorization (SRA) and/or World Health Organization (WHO) Emergency Use Listing along with Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine.
IFC stated that the vaccines will be mainly distributed to the South African government, African Union, and COVAX.
Aspen CEO Stephen Saad said: “Aspen’s teams are working tirelessly to optimize production of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine for Africa at our manufacturing site in Gqeberha, South Africa.
“We are actively seeking opportunities to further extend and capacitate COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing at this world class production facility.
“Aspen is seeking to play a meaningful role in contributing to the objective of delivering the majority of Africa’s needs from production sites located in Africa.”
The company has collaborated with Johnson & Johnson to combine, finish, fill and pack the Janssen Covid-19 vaccine at its sterile facility located in South Africa.
Recently, it also constructed a fully certified sterile injectables facility at its existing site at Gqeberha in South Africa.