The European Investment Bank (EIB) and the Instituto de Credito Oficial (ICO) are jointly providing EUR 50 million facility to Zeltia Group (EIB: EUR 30m and ICO: EUR 20m), to support the biopharmaceutical research and development activities of its subsidiary company PharmaMar. These R&D activities are aimed at strengthening the company’s priority areas, primarily oncology, through products targeting different forms of cancer.

Life Sciences form one main pillar of the EU 7th Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development. Life Sciences present a significant potential for growth and creation of wealth.

PharmaMar is Spain’s leading biotech company dedicated to developing innovative anticancer treatments from marine origin. The company founded in 1986; currently has five compounds in clinical development and a large preclinical pipeline, as well as a marine library of more than 42,000 micro- and macro-organisms. Two of PharmaMar’s compounds in advanced clinical development have received several orphan drug designations from the European Union and are being developed for both high incidence and rare cancers.

The EIB Group centres on three objectives paving the way for technological modernisation and the tailoring of human capital to the European economy of tomorrow. These objectives are: Education and training; Research and development (including downstream development); Information and communications technology (ICT) networks, including the audiovisual sector. Through the European Investment Fund (EIF), support to innovative SMEs and entrepreneurship is ensured, notably through venture capital activities. The Bank's overall objective for the knowledge-based economy is to mobilise up to EUR 50 billion over the current decade.