The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) on Wednesday announced a joint financing package of 600 million euros for Aspen Pharmacare Holdings Ltd. to expand local vaccine manufacturing capacity.
A statement by the U.S. State Department Spokesperson, Ned Price, said DFC is working together with DEG of Germany, Proparco of France and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), an affiliate of the World Bank, to provide financing support.
It said the package would help increase capacity to support Aspen’s efforts to produce COVID-19 vaccines with Stringent Regulatory Authorization (SRA) and/or World Health Organization (WHO) Emergency Use Listing, including the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine.
The vaccines will be primarily distributed to the African Union, South African Government and COVAX, the statement said.
It added that the effort supports the US Administration’s goal “to scale vaccine production, invest in African ingenuity and resilience, and help the global community beat this COVID-19 pandemic”.
Aspen Pharmacare Holdings Ltd. has its headquarters in South Africa.
PANA
