Brussels, Belgium– 16 June 2014: The European Investment Bank (EIB), the financing institution of the European Union, has signed an agreement with the Belgian biopharmaceutical company UCB to provide “at-risk co-development funding” of up to €75 million for the development of selected UCB compounds. The EIB will receive milestone payments if and when predefined milestone events are successfully achieved.
This is an innovative partnership and a first-of-its-kind transaction. It is intended to truly share risks and returns among the partners and therefore to give incentives to UCB to invest ambitiously in its promising development programmes.
The programmes have been carefully selected from UCB’s rich portfolio of potential breakthrough medicines and include medicines at different stages of development that can potentially help millions of patients. UCB and the EIB will, as partners, periodically review the stages of development and the milestones of the programmes being accelerated by the co-development funding and by the EIB actively participating in the development of the programmes.
Roch Doliveux, CEO of UCB commented on the agreement: “Our strategy is to focus on bringing innovative medicines to people suffering from severe diseases in neurology and immunology. We’re happy that our cutting-edge research and innovation is yet again recognized by the EIB, and that they have chosen UCB as a first partner for their new “at-risk co-development funding” approach. This will help to accelerate the development of several promising projects in UCB’s pipeline.”
Pim van Ballekom, Vice-President of the EIB declared: “We are pleased to be partnering with UCB in this breakthrough operation as its pipeline of compounds in development as well as its expertise for developing those compounds rank “best-in-class”. The operation showcases the direct intervention and risk-taking capacity of the EIB and its role in supporting key R&D activities. We are aiming to pave the way and demonstrate that innovative financial instruments such as risk sharing co-development funding can make a difference in boosting research and innovation in Europe; and this is of the utmost importance for the future of Europe.”
The partnership agreement between the EIB and UCB is also the first “risk sharing” transaction signed under the new InnovFin “EU finance for Innovators” programme set up jointly by the European Commission and the EIB Group. “InnovFin Large Projects” is specifically dedicated to improving access to risk finance for research and innovation projects in the European Union.
Notes to the editors
About UCB
UCB, Brussels, Belgium (www.ucb.com), is a global biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of innovative medicines and solutions to transform the lives of people living with severe diseases of the immune system or of the central nervous system. With more than 8 500 employees in around 40 countries, the company generated revenue of €3.4 billion in 2013. UCB is listed on Euronext Brussels (symbol: UCB). Follow us on Twitter: @UCB_news
About the EIB
The EIB is the long-term lending institution of the European Union and is owned by the EU Member States. It makes long-term finance available for sound investment in order to contribute towards EU policy goals. In full alignment with the EU objective of establishing a knowledge-based economy in the EU, last year the EIB allocated more than €15 billion for projects under this heading, €8.5 billion of which to support RDI programmes.
About the EIB and InnovFin (EU Finance for Innovators)
The EIB financing for UCB is specifically supported by the InnovFin Large Projects instrument, which has been developed to improve access to risk finance for R&I projects emanating from: larger firms; universities and public research organisations; R&I infrastructures (including innovation-enabling infrastructures); public-private partnerships; and special-purpose vehicles or projects (including those promoting first-of-a-kind, commercial-scale industrial demonstration projects). Firms and other entities located in Member States and Associated Countries are eligible to be final beneficiaries, and loans from €25 million to €300 million are delivered directly by the European Investment Bank.
InnovFin Large Projects is part of and complements "InnovFin – EU Finance for Innovators", an EIB Group range of tailored financial products and advisory services which facilitate access to finance for innovative businesses and entities in Europe. The new generation of financial instruments and advisory services was launched on 12 June 2014 and over the next seven years it is expected that InnovFin products will make available more than €24 billion of financing for investment in R&I.
InnovFin guarantees and loans are backed by funds set aside under Horizon 2020, the new EU research programme for 2014-20, and by the EIB Group, for the joint purpose of supporting research and innovation activities.
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