WASHINGTON — The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation last week announced it would provide a loan to ApiJect Systems Corp. — its first domestic loan through its Defense Production Act authority and the first example of the new process the agency has set up to provide domestic lending in response to the COVID-19 crisis.
The $590 million loan to ApiJect will fund the company’s development of a new factory in North Carolina where it would produce prefilled injectors or syringes that could deliver COVID-19 vaccines, according to DFC. The technology has not yet been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for this use. On Wednesday DFC announced its second loan approved under DPA — up to $1.1 billion to Ginkgo Bioworks to produce raw materials, including mRNA enzymes, that can be used for vaccine development.
“The DPA program mirrors largely but is not identical to our normal loan-making process,” a senior DFC official told Devex, adding that the agency’s institutional knowledge and capabilities in making loans and doing project finance were among the main reasons it was chosen to run the program.