J. Virgil Waggoner, Chairman of Phyto-Riker Pharmaceuticals, Ltd. today announced the signing of a unique three-way ``trifecta'' financing under the auspices of The Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) supporting Phyto-Riker, a closely watched pharmaceuticals company in Ghana established to address a huge demand for quality, affordable generic drugs in West Africa.
For the first time ever, said Phyto-Riker President & CEO Kennon A. Brennen, OPIC has combined its credit facilities, investment fund services and political risk insurance in a $44.5 million package for the New York based, privately held company. Under the terms of the agreement, OPIC itself has committed $12.5 million to Phyto-Riker while the Modern Africa Fund, an OPIC-sponsored private equity fund designed to forge closer economic ties between the U. S. and Africa, has invested $7.5 million in Phyto-Riker. The OPIC package also includes a $24.5 million political risk insurance policy to cover the manufacture and distribution by Phyto-Riker of low-cost, high-quality generic drugs throughout the sixteen nations of the ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States).
Phyto-Riker, backed by J. Virgil Waggoner of Houston, TX and the Modern Africa Fund, acquired the former Ghanaian state-owned GIHOC Pharmaceutical Company Limited for $9.1 million over eight other international bidders in a competitive privatization process in 1998. Several million additional dollars have been spent to upgrade and increase the performance and efficiencies of the acquired facilities. The 104-acre plant, located near the center of Ghana's capital, Accra, is the largest pharmaceutical manufacturing facility in West, Central and East Africa. Phyto-Riker President Kennon A. Brennen has worked with a professional team of U.S. and African nationals to well position the company as a major player in the region's pharmaceutical industry.
Brennen stated, ``With our historic funding now in place, we believe that Phyto-Riker is poised to become the consolidator of choice to the West African pharmaceutical industry --- whether manufacturer, distributor, wholesaler or retail pharmacist. Unique to the region, Phyto-Riker offers a complete spectrum of the highest grade raw materials for production, semi-finished products and fully packaged private label merchandise. Our world class quality control, `just in time' delivery cycles and small batch options should easily make us the pharmaceutical supplier of choice in the ECOWAS region.''
``What's more,'' Brennen added, ``OPIC funding for Phyto-Riker not only confirms the soundness of our business model for the booming West African market but also salutes our moral vision of bringing desperately needed medicine at affordable prices to millions.''
In addition to supplying quality generics and plant-based medicines, Phyto-Riker is working to capitalize on its production and distribution facilities by providing HIV/AIDS inhibitor drugs to combat the AIDS pandemic in Africa.
OPIC is a self-sustaining federal agency that offers investment services to small, medium and large U.S. businesses seeking to expand into some 140 developing nations and emerging markets around the world. Its Modern Africa Fund invests in companies with proven track records who need equity capital to privatize, modernize or regionalize within sub-Saharan Africa.
