Kodak enters pharma with government loan

The US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) has signed a letter of interest to provide a $765 million loan to Eastman Kodak to support the launch of Kodak Pharmaceuticals at a ceremony at the company’s main site in Rochester, New York state. It was addressed remotely by President Trump and State Governor Andrew Cuomo.

This follows Kodak’s successful completion of DFC’s initial screening. Standard due diligence will follow before financing is formally committed. The company will use the loan will to repurpose and expand its facilities at Rochester and St Paul, Minnesota, including incorporating continuous manufacturing and advanced technology capabilities.

Once fully operational, Kodak Pharmaceuticals will have the capacity to produce up to 25% of the APIs used in non-biologic, non-antibacterial, generic pharmaceuticals while supporting 360 direct jobs and 1,200 indirectly. Currently, the company noted, only 10% of the components used to make generics used in the US are manufactured there, despite the US consuming about 40% of the world total. It plans to coordinate closely with the administration and pharmaceutical manufacturers to identify and prioritise the most critical components.

The project marks the first use of new authority delegated by Trump’s Executive Order 13922 of 14 May. This enabled the DFC and the Department of Defense to collaborate on domestic response to COVID-19 under the Defense Production Act by using financial tools to “re-shore production of strategic resources and strengthen related domestic supply chains”.