The Eastman Kodak Co. is expanding into manufacturing generic pills and tablets.
The new division, Kodak Pharmaceuticals, will receive a $765 million loan from the federal government.
This project is the first use of an executive order that enables the to collaborate in support of the domestic response to COVID-19 under the Defense Production Act (DPA).
“Kodak is proud to be part of strengthening America’s self-sufficiency in producing the key pharmaceutical ingredients we need to keep our citizens safe,” said Jim Continenza, Kodak executive chairman said in a statement on July 28.
The funds will be used to expand and repurpose the company’s existing facilities in New York and Minnesota. Once fully operational, Kodak Pharmaceuticals will have the capacity to produce up to 25% of active pharmaceutical ingredients used in non-biologic, non-antibacterial, generic pharmaceuticals.
The company will add 360 direct jobs and another 1,200 indirectly at those locations.
Shoring up the U.S. supply chain was a key underpinning of this project. Although Americans consume approximately 40% of the world’s supply of bulk components used to produce generic pharmaceutics, only 10% of these materials are manufactured in the United States.
"If we have learned anything from the global pandemic, it is that Americans are dangerously dependent on foreign supply chains for their essential medicines,” said Assistant to the President and Director of the Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy at the White House Dr. Peter Navarro.
