The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) has announced a joint financing package of €600 million for Aspen Pharmacare Holdings in South Africa to expand local vaccine manufacturing capacity.

Aspen Pharmacare Holdings Ltd. has its headquarters in South Africa.

The U.S. announced this in a statement on Wednesday.

The U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price said that the DFC was working with DEG of Germany, Proparco of France and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), an affiliate of the World Bank, to provide financing support.

The package will help increase capacity to support Aspen’s efforts to produce COVID-19 vaccines with Stringent Regulatory Authorization (SRA) and/or World Health Organisation Emergency Use Listing, including the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine.

The vaccines would be primarily distributed to the African Union, South Africa, and COVAX.

According to the statement, the effort supports the U.S. administration’s goal “to scale vaccine production, invest in African ingenuity and resilience, and help the global community beat this COVID-19 pandemic.”