The United States Export-Import Bank (US EximBank) has approved a comprehensive guarantee to support $9.38 million loan from UPS capital to Xechem Pharmaceuticals Nigeria Limited.

A report said Access Bank and Diamond Bank would provide the required local guarantee for the loan in favour of the US EximBank.

The report indicated that the funds were earmarked for the establishment of the state-of-the-art pharmaceutical facility in Sheda Science village Abuja.

The funds to be approved by UPS capital under the Exim guaranteed loan will be used to purchase the United States manufactured plant equipment and machinery needed by Xechem Nigeria to establish a state-of-the-arm pharmaceutical facility. The first phase of the construction of the new facility has since commenced.

The total cost of the project is estimated at $12.45 million, of which $9.38 million come from the US loan. When completed, it will enable Xechem Nigeria to produce commercial scale quantities of Nicosan, Xechem's breakthrough medicine for the prophylactic management of sickle cell diseases (SCD).

It was learnt that Xechem Nigeria received regulatory approval for the manufacture, sales and marketing of Nicosan from Nigeria's National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) in July and officially launched the drug just a few days later at a ceremony presided over by President Olusegun Obasanjo. The drug is currently being produced by Xechem Nigeria in limited quantities at its pilot-scale facility in Abuja.