Faron Pharmaceuticals Oy (LON:FARN) NASDAQFIRSTNORTH:FARON), the clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, has announced plans to initiate a new state of the art process for the manufacturing of interferon (IFN) beta-1a.
To support this, Faron said, it has received a €2,100,000 low interest rate loan from Business Finland, the governmental innovation financing agency of Finland.
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The loan is for a period of 7 years with repayment only commencing after 3 year and the interest is three percentage points below the Finish base rate of interest, subject to a minimum rate of 1 percent.
The group said the loan funds will be used to develop and select a new cell line that can be used for future commercial-scale production of Faron's human IFN beta-1a.
In a statement, Faron’s CEO, Dr Markku Jalkanen commented: "This is a very important initiative backed by the Finnish Government. We have a good existing stock of IFN beta-1a, but given the on-going clinical trials (REMAP-CAP and The WHO's Solidarity Trial) and the potential for increasing future demand of IFN beta-1a for COVID-19 and other viral infections like influenza we need to begin up-scaling our manufacturing capacity."