Kodak Chief Executive Officer and CEO Jim Continenza discusses the company’s production of drugs and pharmaceutical supplies in the U.S.
Shares of Eastman Kodak Co. rose for a second day on Wednesday after the company switched to the pharmaceutical industry after obtaining a $ 765 million government loan to produce generic drugs.
Shares of the Rochester, New York-based company, known for manufacturing chemicals used in films, have gained as much as 2,189 percent since the announcement Tuesday morning, peaking at $ 59.98. They settled at $ 2.62 each at the close of trading on Monday.
| Heart | Security | Latest | Change | Change% |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| KODK | EASTMAN KODAK CO. | 33.20 | +25.26 | + 318.14% |
Eastman Kodak will supply about 25 percent of key small molecule starting materials and active pharmaceutical ingredients for the U.S. supply chain, CEO Jim Continenza told FOX Business Stuart Varney on Wednesday.
For Kodak, which started producing hand sanitizer, face shields, and fan circuit boards during the COVID-19 pandemic, a change in the pharmaceutical industry should not be much different from some of the processes for its film business.
The company previously developed over-the-counter drugs before selling its Sterling Winthrop business unit to British drug maker SmithKline Beechman for $ 2.93 billion in 1994.
Kodak has been manufacturing key unregulated starting materials “for a couple of years” and will now expand production on a “large scale,” according to Continenza.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT FOX BUSINESS
Its entry into pharmaceuticals is part of President Trump’s plan to use the Defense Production Act to bring manufacturing of critical pharmaceutical ingredients to the US after the pandemic underscored the nation’s dependence on China.
The change in address comes at an opportune time for Kodak, which had seen its market capitalization shrink to $ 114.58 million since it emerged from its Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in September 2013.
Kodak’s market capitalization, which was close to $ 1.4 billion on Wednesday, reached a post-bankruptcy peak of $ 1.46 billion in October 2013, according to Dow Jones Market Data. Its all-time high was $ 31.4 billion in February 1997.
