Frank­furt am Main — Herbert Smith Freeh­ills has advi­sed biotech company Achil­les Vacci­nes on the raising of an €11 million venture loan provi­ded by the EU Mala­ria Fund. The loan will support the rese­arch and deve­lo­p­ment of a mono­clonal anti­body against COVID-19. It will also be used for the first phase of three other vaccine rese­arch and deve­lo­p­ment projects. The combi­ned use of geno­mics, advan­ced mathe­ma­tics and arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence in the funded projects is expec­ted to signi­fi­cantly reduce the dura­tion and cost of development.

As the EU Mala­ria Fund is domic­i­led in Germany, the loan is subject to German law. It is the first of five annual loans from the new fund with a total volume of more than 46 million euros. At the same time, it marks the largest seed finan­cing to date for an Italian start-up in the biotech sector.

Achil­les Vacci­nes, based in Siena, Italy, focu­ses on the rese­arch and deve­lo­p­ment of vacci­nes against mala­ria and other serious infec­tious diseases.

The EU Mala­ria Fund is finan­ced, among others, by Innov­Fin EU and the Euro­pean Fund for Stra­te­gic Invest­ments, two joint initia­ti­ves of the Euro­pean Invest­ment Bank and the Euro­pean Commis­sion, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foun­da­tion , and the Monte dei Paschi di Siena Foun­da­tion.

Advi­sor Mala­ria Fund: Dentons (Frank­furt)
by part­ners Dr. Arne Klüwer and Dirk-Reiner Voss and coun­sels Verena Etzel and Oda Elmou­taoua­kil. They were supported by a team from Dentons’ Milan and Rome offices, led by part­ner Michele Odello.

Advi­sor Achil­les Vacci­nes: Herbert Smith Freeh­ills (Milan/Frankfurt)
Simone Egidi (Of Coun­sel, Milan, Lead), Kai Liebrich, Stefa­nie Herkert (both Part­ners), Dr. Katja Lehr (Coun­sel; all Banking & Finance), Dr. Stef­fen Hörner (Part­ner, Tax; all Frank­furt), Laura Orlando (Part­ner, Life Scien­ces), Sara Balice (Asso­ciate, IP; both Milan)
Maisto e Asso­ciati (Milan): Mauro Messi (Tax Law)