What’s new: Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., a unit of private Chinese conglomerate Fosun Group, secured two loans totaling 50 million euros ($54 million) from the International Finance Corp. (IFC) to fund a project in Côte d’Ivoire, West Africa.
The loans will support Fosun Pharma’s construction of a pharmaceutical production facility and distribution center in Abidjan, the largest city of Côte d’Ivoire, according to the World Bank’s IFC.
The facility will have the annual capacity to produce 5 billion tablets of anti-malaria and anti-bacterial drugs. The project will be constructed in three phases with the first phase to be completed in 2024.
Background: The Fosun Pharma project will enhance accessibility to affordable, life-saving medications across West Africa to improve public health in the region, the IFC said in a statement.
Fosun runs the largest overseas business among Chinese pharmaceutical companies. In 2022, the company’s foreign sales totaled 13.9 billion yuan ($2 billion), accounting for 32% of total revenue. Fosun Pharma set up sales networks covering 39 countries and regions in Africa, focusing on anti-malaria drugs.
The IFC, the private-sector arm of the World Bank, previously backed Fosun Pharma’s Covid-19 vaccine output and distribution projects. In 2021, the IFC and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank jointly provided $300 million of loans to the Chinese company.
Contact reporter Han Wei (weihan@caixin.com) and editor Bob Simison (bob.simison@caixin.com)
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