Latest news with #RobertdeGroot
Business Wire
3 days ago
- Health
- Business Wire
Leyden Labs Lands €20 Million EIB Investment Facilitated by HERA to Advance Pandemic Preparedness Activities
LUXEMBOURG & LEIDEN, the Netherlands--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The European Investment Bank (EIB) and Dutch clinical-stage biotechnology company Leyden Laboratories B.V. have signed a €20 million financing deal to advance development of the Company's broadly-protective antibodies to defend against seasonal and pandemic viral infections. Leyden Labs' lead program is a pan-influenza nasal spray currently in clinical development (PanFlu), which has the potential to provide first-in-class influenza protection and meaningfully reduce the burden of influenza infection, including in infection from Avian Flu (H5). The venture debt financing agreement is supported under the European Commission's InvestEU programme and specifically falls under 'HERA Invest.' This €110 million initiative from the European Health Union is meant to address biodefence, pandemic readiness and antimicrobial resistance in Europe, as a top-up to the European Union's InvestEU initiative, funded by the EU4Health programme. 'The COVID-19 pandemic taught us multiple lessons, including that we should strengthen the EU's preparedness and autonomy in key areas like bio sciences,' stated EIB Vice President Robert de Groot. 'With the support of the European Commission, the EIB backs highly innovative EU companies like Leyden Labs with venture debt, enabling them to grow and thrive in Europe. Technological innovations from companies like Leyden Labs are key for European competitiveness and the well-being of our society.' Hadja Lahbib, Commissioner for Equality, Preparedness and Crisis Management, added: 'Respiratory viruses are common and affect us all, especially the most medically vulnerable. Today's agreement reaffirms our commitment to invest in innovation to strengthen preparedness and protection against respiratory viruses. HERA Invest is a prime example of Europe at the forefront of medical advancements in response to serious threats to health.' 'We are thrilled with this endorsement of our approach and support from HERA and the European Investment Bank. This will accelerate our efforts to provide broad, universal protection against current and future viral outbreaks. We are grateful that HERA and the EIB understand the urgency and significance of investing in initiatives to ensure Europe is prepared for pandemic viruses. This concern is greater than ever given the increasing threat of an avian influenza outbreak,' said Koenraad Wiedhaup, co-founder and CEO of Leyden Labs. Leyden Labs' product candidates are nasal sprays that administer broadly protective antibodies directly to the respiratory mucosa. Leyden Lab's solutions are designed to work at the earliest moment, before the virus even reaches systemic circulation. Systemically administered vaccines primarily generate systemic protection against viruses, however, this may be a limitation that contributes to suboptimal efficacy. Airborne viruses, including influenza, do not directly enter systemic circulation, but rather, they enter the body through the nose and mouth. The Company's antibodies aim to protect against full viral families, so they keep working even when a virus mutates and evolves. This intranasal strategy also has the potential to benefit people with weakened immune systems because it does not rely on the person to be able to mount an immune response in order to be protective. The Company's novel approach has the potential to transform the way the healthcare ecosystem thinks about viral prophylaxis, while also providing an innovative solution for use both in times of seasonal outbreaks as well as pandemic emergencies. HERA's responsibility is to ensure that the EU and Member States are ready to act in the face of cross-border health threats. The €20 million proceeds of this financing will support further development of Leyden Labs' novel, non-vaccine approach to fighting respiratory viruses to contribute to European pandemic preparedness efforts. Background Information: Health Emergency Preparedness and Response (HERA). The European Commission's Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA) supports projects that strengthen preparedness and response capacities in the field of health. HERA was established as a direct consequence of the lessons learned from the initial management of the COVID-19 pandemic, to ensure a solid Union response to serious-cross border health threats and secure ready availability and accessibility of medical countermeasures. HERA's responsibility is to ensure that the EU and Member States are ready to act in the face of cross-border health threats, and its mandate covers both the strengthening of preparedness in advance of future emergencies and the implementation of a swift and efficient response once crisis hits. HERA Invest is a €110 million top-up to the InvestEU programme, funded by the EU4Health programme. It is implemented by the EIB and supports projects that focus on pathogens with pandemic potential, chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear threats, and antimicrobial resistance. Together with HERA, the EIB assesses whether an operation meets HERA Invest's criteria. The InvestEU programme provides the European Union with crucial long-term funding by leveraging substantial private and public funds in support of a sustainable recovery. It also helps mobilise private investment for EU policy priorities, such as the European Green Deal and the digital transition. InvestEU brings together under one roof the multitude of EU financial instruments previously available to support investment in the European Union, making funding for investment projects in Europe simpler, more efficient and more flexible. The programme consists of three components: the InvestEU Fund, the InvestEU Advisory Hub and the InvestEU Portal. The InvestEU Fund is deployed through implementing partners who will invest in projects using the EU budget guarantee of €26.2 billion. The entire budget guarantee will back the investment projects of the implementing partners, increase their risk-bearing capacity and thus mobilise at least €372 billion in additional investment. The European Investment Bank (EIB) is the long-term lending institution of the European Union, owned by its Member States. The Netherlands owns a 5,2% share of the EIB. It makes long-term finance available for sound investment in order to contribute towards EU policy goals and national priorities. More than 90% of its activity is in Europe. Over the last ten years, the EIB has made available more than €27 billion in financing for Dutch projects in various sectors, including research & development, sustainable mobility, drinking water, healthcare and SMEs. In 2024 the EIB Group, which also includes the EIB's subsidiary, the European Investment Fund (EIF), made available more than €3 billion for Dutch projects. Leyden Laboratories B.V. (Leyden Labs), founded in 2020, is a clinical-stage biotechnology company based in the Netherlands. Leyden Labs is working to free people from the threat of respiratory viruses, by leveraging its Mucosal Protection Platform to develop a portfolio of candidates aimed at providing protection against influenza, coronaviruses, and other respiratory viruses through a new class of broadly protective nasal sprays. Leyden Labs is supported by a strong syndicate of investors and ambassadors; VC investors include GV (formerly Google Ventures), Casdin Capital, F-Prime Capital, ClavystBio (a life sciences venture investor established by Temasek), Polaris Partners, Qiming Venture Partners, Invus, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Byers Capital / Brook Byers and Bluebird Ventures. To learn more, visit CR9114, Leyden Labs' lead product candidate for the PanFlu program, is a human monoclonal antibody that protects against influenza in preclinical models. Leyden Labs holds an exclusive license from Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc., one of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson, to develop and commercialize CR9114.
New York Times
15-04-2025
- Climate
- New York Times
How a Nifty Government Tool Knows About Earthquakes Before You Feel Them
Millions of people across Southern California learned about a 5.2-magnitude earthquake that hit San Diego County on Monday not from their windows rattling or their picture frames clattering, but from a noisy alert on their mobile phones seconds before the shaking started. The urgent messages — advising people to 'drop, cover, hold on. Protect yourself' — were created with a tool from the United States Geological Survey known as ShakeAlert. The system detects earthquakes as soon as they start happening and quickly gathers information to determine which areas are likely to experience strong shaking. ShakeAlert operates on the notion that each and every fraction of a second is precious time that people can use to react and avoid injury before shaking from an earthquake occurs. Here's how the system works: Picture a small car six feet underground. The ShakeAlert early warning system monitors for earthquakes across the West Coast with the help of tens of thousands of seismic stations, each the size of a compact car and buried about six feet underground. The stations are equipped with sensors that detect the full spectrum of seismic waves, the vibrations that travel through the Earth and toward the surface after an earthquake, similar to the way ripples radiate across water when a pebble is dropped into a lake. The waves travel at different speeds, and the success of the system is built on this. The fast-moving primary waves, or P-waves, travel at about four miles per second; they are gentler and less likely to cause destruction. The stronger secondary waves, or S-waves, move much more slowly, about two and a half miles per second. They are more likely to cause damage in an earthquake. The goal of ShakeAlert is to capture the P-wave data, process it on the U.S.G.S.'s high-speed computers and make it available to government agencies and private companies like apps that send out alerts before the S-waves hit the surface. 'It's all automated, and it's all happening really fast,' said Robert de Groot, a physical scientist at the agency and a coordinator for ShakeAlert. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Broadcast Pro
30-01-2025
- Business
- Broadcast Pro
EIB Global signs $130m loan deal with SES for O3b mPOWER
The loan will partially fund SESs continued O3b mPOWER fleet expansion for additional capacity worldwide. The European Investment Banks global arm, EIB Global, has signed a 125m ($130.16m)loan agreement with SES, a provider of satellite-enabled content and connectivity solutions. The loan will support the deployment of three satellites as part of SESs second-generation medium earth orbit (MEO) O3b mPOWER system. To date, SES has launched eight of the 13 planned O3b mPOWER satellites, which operate 8,000 km from Earth. The funding will enable SES to expand broadband connectivity through its MEO system, providing internet access to underserved and remote areas across Africa, Asia and Latin America. This initiative aims to reduce the urban-rural digital divide and enhance access to essential services such as education, healthcare, and e-governance. EIB Vice-President Robert de Groot said: 'Digital connectivity is essential for economic and social development, particularly in regions where access to broadband is limited. By fostering enhanced connectivity, this collaboration with SES will not only help to bridge the digital divide, but will also unlock new opportunities by improving quality of life for millions of people. The project will also help strengthen Europes independence in the area of access to space-based data traffic reflecting the EIBs commitment to supporting Europes strategic autonomy in the domains of space and global connectivity.' Sandeep Jalan, Chief Financial Officer at SES, added: 'We are pleased to have secured this term loan from the EIB, which reflects their confidence in our business and network and underscores our ability to secure funding from diverse sources while bolstering SESs financial foundation. This agreement further enables us to deliver high-performance, multi-orbit connectivity services securely and reliably to our customers worldwide.' The loan aligns with the European Unions Global Gateway initiative, which promotes investment in secure and sustainable infrastructure to connect communities and enhance global living standards.
