Former photography giant Kodak is getting into the drug business

Kodak was once a giant in the world of photography, having developed the technologies that many rival companies used for many years. However, a lack of adaptation to a digital world has been quite catastrophic and now it appears that the company is moving in a completely different direction: Pharmaceuticals

The US government is giving the company a $765 million loan to create a new business arm, Kodak Pharmaceuticals, to produce ingredients needed for drug manufacturing. Remember, it’s America so those are good drugs. But probably not for long.

With the world in the middle of a crippling pandemic, the company has decided to work towards making ingredients that have “lapsed into chronic national shortage,” and once the unit is fully up and running, it will be able to make “up to 25 percent of active pharmaceutical ingredients used in non-biologic, non-antibacterial, generic pharmaceuticals,”, according to an official statement by the company.

It’s an interesting change of direction for the company that used to be the envy of the world thanks to their imaging technology, to now focus on making pharmaceuticals instead. Given the state of the world and the US health system, it’s arguably more lucrative and profitable. And that pharmaceutical, in particular, they are going to work on first appears to include hydroxychloroquine, as reported by The Wall Street Journal. The drug made famous by Trump’s constant mention of it as a way of fighting Covid-19 despite science proving otherwise. I guess they need to get access to the money in some way and this was probably going to win Trump over.

Good luck to Kodak then. It’s sad to see the company move away from the industry it helped create, but it is once again just a reminder to the world that if you are not able to successfully adapt, you will inevitably fail, no matter how big you are.

Last Updated: July 30, 2020