The European Commission, through the Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA) and the European Investment Bank, signed on Monday, October 7, an agreement worth 20 million euros with French biopharmaceutical company Fabentech. This agreement will support the company’s development and commercialization of broad-spectrum pharmacotherapeutics to combat biological threats to public health.

HERA’s threat analysis demonstrated the importance of developing Fabentech’s technology platform, which is based on the production of broad-spectrum polyclonal antibody fragments that recognize and neutralize pathogens and toxins in the human body. Thanks to its integrated capabilities in research and development and biomanufacturing, Fabentech aims to rapidly develop and produce new immunotherapies, thus contributing to more effective response to public health emergencies.

Today’s agreement is the first of its kind under HERA Invest. At the same time, more investments in other European companies have already been launched. These investments will stimulate innovation to address leading health threats, such as pathogens with high pandemic potential, radiological, biological, chemical and nuclear (RBC) threats or antibiotic resistance. The HERA Invest flagship initiative is a €100 million additional boost to the InvestEU programme, funded by the EU4Health programme, which aims to protect citizens from health threats.

The Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Ms. Stella Kyriakidou he said: “Innovation must be front and center in our response to serious cross-border health threats. Today’s first €20 million HERA Invest deal signed will boost research and development into broad-spectrum therapeutics to combat some of the leading health threats. HERA Invest works to remove the barriers that European companies and SMEs face today in accessing sufficient public and private funding to develop and scale cutting-edge solutions to protect citizens’ health. This is another action in the framework of the industrial pillar of the strong European Health Union.”

In 2022, HERA, together with Member States, has identified three specific top threats to health that we need to prepare for. To ensure the availability and accessibility of medical countermeasures, HERA supports the development, production capacity and intensification of the production, purchase and potential stockpiling of medicines, diagnostic equipment, medical devices and personal protective equipment, as well as other medical countermeasures. In this context, HERA collaborated with the European Investment Bank (EIB) to establish HERA Invest.

Athena Papakosta