The European Investment Bank (EIB) and the biotech company MolMed S.p.A. (MLMD.MI) have signed a financing agreement which will enable MolMed to receive a credit line of up to EUR 15 million over the coming years to support the biotechnology company’s development plan for sustainable growth, providing it achieves a set of agreed performance criteria.
MolMed is a biotech company based in Milan focused on research, development, manufacturing and clinical validation of gene and cell therapies for the treatment of cancer and rare diseases.
The financing is backed by the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), the central pillar of the Juncker Plan.
The Bank will provide a relevant contribution to MolMed’s innovative products and process development plans, with the aim of supporting the continuous growth of the company and exploitation of the untapped potential of its business.
EIB Vice-President Dario Scannapieco said: “I am really happy with this operation, since it is a flagship project of the EIB’s activity under the Investment Plan for Europe: impact financing, targeting research and development in a sector that is crucial for people’s health and life.”
European Commissioner for the Economy, Paolo Gentiloni, said: “Providing financing for research, development and clinical trials is critical for biotech companies such as MolMed. The Investment Plan for Europe has a strong track record in supporting cancer research but this is one of the first projects in Italy. The Commission will continue to support groundbreaking medical research that could prove vital to so many Europeans.”
MolMed’s CEO Riccardo Palmisano commented: “We are happy with and proud of this agreement. Proud because the selection criteria of the European Investment Bank are strict and solely focused on innovation and sustainable growth and also because we are one of the first Italian companies approved for such funding. We are very happy too, because our recently reported financial results and strategic positioning together with our short and medium-term forecast enabled us to access such qualified and competitive debt financing resources, thus avoiding any other dilutive form to support our solid industrial development plans.”
Background information
About MolMed
MolMed S.p.A. is a clinical stage biotech company focused on research, development, manufacturing and clinical validation of innovative therapies. MolMed is the first company in Europe to have obtained the GMP manufacturing authorisation for cell & gene therapies ex vivo for its proprietary products as well as for third parties and/or in partnership (Strimvelis, an Orchard gene therapy for ADA-SCID). With reference to GMP development and manufacturing activities for third parties, MolMed has signed numerous partnership agreements with leading European and US companies. MolMed is also developing a new therapeutic platform based on Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR), both autologous and allogeneic; the most advanced product, CAR-T CD44v6, received in March 2019 the authorisation to start human clinical trials in onco-hematologic indications (AML and MM), following an extensive pre-clinical phase. The product, whose innovative spacer incorporated in the CAR protein received in May 2019 the grant confirmation, is potentially effective also in several epithelial solid tumours. MolMed is also developing a pipeline based on NK (Natural Killer) cells, following a research agreement signed in 2018 with Glycostem. MolMed, founded in 1996 as an academic spin-off of the San Raffaele Scientific Institute, is listed on the main market (MTA) of the Milan stock exchange managed by Borsa Italiana since March 2008. MolMed is headquartered and based in Milan, at the San Raffaele Biotechnology Department (DIBIT) and has an operating unit at OpenZone in Bresso.