EIB Lends €20 Million To Biotech Company For Development Of Biopharmaceuticals To Treat Cancer And Inflammatory Diseases

• The EIB will provide a €20 million loan to Swedish biopharmaceutical company Affibody.
• The EIB loan will finance the research and development of next-generation biopharmaceuticals against cancer and inflammatory diseases.
• This agreement is supported by the InvestEU programme.

The European Investment Bank (EIB), backed by the InvestEU programme, has announced it has provided a €20 million venture debt loan facility to Affibody. Affibody is a Swedish clinical stage biotech company. It specialises in the development of next-generation biopharmaceuticals based on a proprietary technology, targeting unmet medical needs in immunology and oncology.

The investment will support Affibody’s research and development (R&D) activities in Europe in next-generation biopharmaceuticals to treat inflammatory diseases and cancer. It is expected to create over 100 jobs in this sector, and to boost the competitiveness of the EU biotech sector.

Paolo Gentiloni, European Commissioner for Economy, said: “Facilitating the development of innovative treatments to tackle cancer and other serious diseases is among the worthiest investments we can make. This agreement, supported by InvestEU, is a further step towards ensuring Europe remains at the cutting edge of medical research and development.”

EIB Vice-President Thomas Östros, responsible for Sweden, said:“Supporting promising biotech companies in the clinical stage is crucial for furthering the competitiveness of Europe’s health and life sciences sector. This project is well aligned with the EIB’s investment strategy and our aim to support highly innovative biotech companies, developing breakthrough life sciences products that have the potential to transform and greatly improve people’s lives. As such, we are pleased to support Affibody’s cutting-edge research into therapeutic solutions for cancer and inflammatory diseases, helping the company develop next-generation biopharmaceuticals.”

Chief Executive Officer of Affibody David Bejker said: “We are very pleased and grateful for the support of the EIB, which will help us move towards the first potential market approvals of a new class of biologicals that can improve and prolong the lives of a number of patient groups.”

Background information

About the European Investment Bank

Ensuring a just transition for all is one of the EIB Group’s four overarching objectives in its Climate Bank Roadmap 2025. The EIB’s ambition is to support €1 trillion of climate action and environmental sustainability investments in the decade to 2030 and align all its new operations with the goals and principles of the Paris Agreement.

The project supports Horizon Europe’s priorities of strengthening the European Union’s scientific and technological foundations and the European Research Area (ERA), in particular the Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness pillar for health and research, development and innovation.

About InvestEU

The InvestEU programme provides the European Union with crucial long-term financing by mobilising significant public and private funds to support a sustainable recovery. It helps generate additional investments in line with key European priorities, such as the European Green Deal, the digital transition and support for SMEs. The InvestEU programme brings together all EU financial tools to support investment by making project financing simpler, more efficient and more flexible. The programme has three components: the InvestEU Fund, the InvestEU Advisory Hub and the InvestEU Portal. The InvestEU Fund is implemented through financial partners who will invest in projects using the EU budget guarantee of €26.2 billion. The entire budgetary guarantee will back the investment projects of the implementing partners, increase their risk-bearing capacity and thus mobilise at least €372 billion in additional investment. The European Investment Bank Group, including the European Investment Fund, is the main implementing partner of the InvestEU programme.

About Affibody

Affibody is a clinical stage integrated biopharmaceutical company with a broad product pipeline focused on developing innovative bi- and multi-specific next generation biopharmaceutical drugs based on its unique proprietary technology platform, Affibody^® molecules.

Through its validated business model, the company has a proven capability of identifying and prioritizing strategic projects in a timely and de-risked way. Affibody has established several partnerships for the development and commercialization of its innovations with international pharmaceutical companies.

Affibody’s main shareholder Patricia Industries is a part of Investor AB, one of Sweden’s oldest and largest investment companies with extensive experience in contributing to long-term value creation in leading life science companies.

Source – EIB