EIB and UCB partner to accelerate development of new medicines

The European Investment Bank (EIB), the financing institution of the European Union, has signed an agreement with the Belgian biopharmaceutical company UCB (Euronext: UCB) to provide “at-risk co-development funding” of up to 75 million euros ($101.5 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 programs.

The programs 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 programs being accelerated by the co-development funding and by the EIB actively participating in the development of the programs.