Netherlands: Dutch Life Science Tools LUMICKS secures €20 million from EIB to accelerate drug discovery for cancer.

• Amsterdam-based LUMICKS signs €20 million venture debt with EIB to accelerate the development and launch of its new product, designed to advance immunotherapy development for cancer research.
• LUMICKS’ next generation high-throughput cell avidity platform aims to transform the drug discovery process by replacing traditional screening methods, expediting development for life-saving treatments, and improving reliability in the drug discovery process.
• The investment is backed by the European Commission through the InvestEU initiative, which seeks to foster innovation projects and job creation across Europe.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) and LUMICKS have signed a €20 million venture debt agreement to accelerate the launch of its next generation, high throughput cell avidity platform. The financing is supported by the European Commission under the InvestEU initiative.

LUMICKS’ Cell Avidity technology is transforming the discovery process in cancer immunotherapy by addressing a critical challenge: the lack of tools to directly measure the binding interaction of immune cells, such as CAR-T cells, with cancer cells. This limitation creates uncertainties in the preclinical funnel and slows therapy development. By providing high-throughput measurement of such interactions, LUMICKS’ empowers researchers to optimize therapies faster and with greater accuracy, with the goal of improving success rates in clinical trials.

“The Netherlands is home to a vibrant Life Sciences industry and the EIB has been proudly supporting this sector to ensure it continues to lead in medical innovation and transformative healthcare solutions.” stated EIB vice president Robert de Groot. “The new financing to LUMICKS is a testament of this. With the backing of InvestEU, the EIB can provide LUMICKS with stable long-term funding matching the highly innovative profile of the Company and tailored to its current needs for continued growth, market expansion, and development of its technologies.”

“This investment from the EIB enables us to accelerate our R&D timeline, ensuring we continue innovating to deliver a long-lasting impact in the immunotherapy space” stated LUMICKS CEO Hugo de Wit. “By providing deeper insights into cellular interactions, our instruments empower researchers to make faster, better-informed decisions, with the goal of improving success rates in clinical trials and accelerating the development of effective therapies.”

LUMICKS, founded in 2014, employs 170 people globally and has a proven track record of developing and commercializing cutting-edge life science tools. Widely adopted by top universities and research institutions worldwide, LUMICKS’ technologies have contributed to numerous publications in top journals across fields such as oncology and immunotherapy.

Background information:

The European Investment Bank (EIB) is the long-term lending institution of the European Union, owned by its Member States. It makes long-term finance available for sound investment in order to contribute towards EU policy goals. Over the last ten years, the EIB has made available more than €27 billion in financing for Dutch projects in various sectors, including research & development, transport, drinking water, healthcare and SMEs.

The EIB is the European Union's bank; the only bank owned by and representing the interests of the European Union Member States, The Netherlands owns a 5,2% share of the EIB. It works closely with other EU institutions to implement EU policy and is the world’s largest multilateral borrower and lender. The EIB provides finance and expertise for sustainable investment projects that contribute to EU policy objectives. More than 90% of its activity is in Europe.

The InvestEU programme provides the European Union with crucial long-term funding by leveraging substantial private and public funds in support of a sustainable recovery. It also helps mobilise private investment for EU policy priorities, such as the European Green Deal and the digital transition. InvestEU brings together under one roof the multitude of EU financial instruments previously available to support investment in the European Union, making funding for investment projects in Europe simpler, more efficient and more flexible. The programme consists of three components: the InvestEU Fund, the InvestEU Advisory Hub and the InvestEU Portal. The InvestEU Fund is deployed through implementing partners who will invest in projects using the EU budget guarantee of €26.2 billion. The entire budget 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.

LUMICKS is a pioneering life science tools company dedicated to accelerating drug discovery in cancer research and advancing the understanding of fundamental biological mechanisms at the molecular and cellular levels. Our innovative technologies empower researchers to reveal crucial insights into the biological complexity of health and disease, driving the development of next-generation therapies and accelerating immunotherapy breakthroughs.

Mission:

We empower academic and pharmaceutical communities with cutting-edge technologies to deeply understand the mechanisms of life and disease, driving the discovery and development of life-saving therapies.

Vision:

By 2027, more than 250 world-leading researchers developing therapies and understanding biological mechanisms will use cell avidity and single-molecule data to develop cures that will impact more than 1 million lives.