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The project concerns a quasi-equity financing to Icosagen AS, an Estonian biotech developing innovative solutions in the discovery, development and manufacturing of biopharmaceuticals. Icosagen, founded in 1999 to provide molecular diagnostics services to Estonian medical institutions, provides contract research services to the biopharma/ biotech industries and academia to support the development of biologic drugs. The company offers a catalog of off-the-shelf products, such as antibodies, proteins, and ELISA kits.
The operation will support Icosagen's investments into research, development and innovation (RDI), as well as clinical, manufacturing and regulatory costs for its current good manufacturing practice (cGMP) site. Other research drug development programmes are also included in the project.
The project concerns an operation under Invest EU. The purpose of the loan is to provide direct, equity-type financing under EIB's Venture Debt Instrument to support Research, Development and Innovation ("RDI") activities of the innovative company 'Icosagen', an SME based in Estonia. The financing of this project addresses the failure in financial markets for RDI, arising from limited access to commensurate financing as a result of factors such as information asymmetries, misalignment of incentives, etc. Icosagen is a biotech company focused on the development of innovative solutions for discovery, development and manufacturing of biopharmaceuticals. By creating knowledge externalities, the project is expected to provide significant socio-economic benefits, will strengthen Estonia and Europe's leading position in biotechnologies, and it will help to retain skilled staff engaged in the Company's RDI activities.
The promoter's investments concern research, development and innovation activities that are expected to be carried out in existing facilities already authorised for the same purpose and would therefore not require an environmental impact assessment (EIA) under Directive 2011/92/EU. Full environmental details will be verified during appraisal.
The Promoter is a private company, not operating in the utilities sector and does not have the status of a contracting authority; thus the project is not covered by the EU directives on procurement. However, the Promoter's procurement procedures are expected to be in line with EIB guidelines for private sector projects. The Bank's services will verify details during the project due diligence.
As per indications received by the client, the preferred timing for postponed publication Upon Signature.