NEW YORK ─ International Finance Corporation is investing $16.5 million in MedGenome, a genetic diagnostics and research company, to increase access to COVID-19 testing in India, the companies said on Thursday.
The equity investment will also support research to help better understand the COVID-19 virus and its variants, and to manage future outbreaks, the firms said.
"With IFC's support, we will continue to expand our services across India, bringing tests directly to the communities most affected by the pandemic, and finding genetic variants that might be making some people more susceptible to severe COVID-19 infection and post-COVID illness," Sam Santhosh, MedGenome's founder and chairman, said in a statement.
IFC's investment will support the expansion of MedGenome's diagnostic services and increase the collection of genomic data from South Asian populations to provide insights into complex diseases, the firms said.
Washington, D.C.-based IFC, a member of the World Bank, is a global development institution focused on the private sector in developing countries. The investment in Foster City, California-based MedGenome is part of IFC's $4 billion Global Health Platform, which provides financing to support the manufacturing and supply of vaccines, medical equipment, and therapeutics, as well as logistics to deliver vaccines and medications.