Icosagen AS, an Estonian-based biopharmaceutical innovator, has reached a $18 million financing deal with the European Investment Bank (EIB), to further strengthen its drug discovery, development and production services.

The agreement is backed by the InvestEU program. 

The funds are part of Icosagen’s $40 million investment into expanding its contract research and development capabilities as well as into a new current good manufacturing practice (cGMP) facility to produce drugs for clinical trials.

The agreement seeks to provide a major boost to the biological drug development industry in Estonia.

Construction of the new 1,600 square meter production plant expands on Icosagen’s existing laboratories in Tartu, Estonia. It is scheduled to completed in September 2023 and expected to become operational in 2024.

The new facility is designed to help Icosagen become a one-stop shop for its biotechnology and pharmaceutical clients, and a full contract research, development and manufacturing organization (CRDMO), that offers seamless discovery, development and manufacturing capabilities of mammalian protein drug candidates.

“We have steadily been working towards this important milestone for a long time,” said CEO and founder of Icosagen Professor Mart Ustav. “Developing novel technologies and workflows will help increase our competitiveness in providing contract research and development service to our clients in Europe and other regions of the world. The cGMP facility will provide further state-of-the-art training and employment opportunities for local and regional scientists and, at the same time, expand the capabilities and impact of the European biopharmaceutical drug production industry. We are very grateful to the EIB for their crucial support in this endeavor.”

EIB vice president Thomas Östros said, “The biopharmaceutical industry is expected to grow significantly in the future, based on superior efficacy and safety of biologics compared to small molecules, as well as increasing adoption for the treatment of chronic diseases. We at the EIB are proud to support this industry’s growth. By providing financing to Icosagen, an innovative and fast-growing company, we will enable it to provide its clients with a more complete range of services and products in the field of biologics in Europe and beyond.”

“InvestEU is playing an important role across Europe in helping businesses access the finance they need to innovate, expand and create jobs,” said European Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni. “This agreement is an excellent example of InvestEU channeling finance to support research and production that will allow Europe to maintain its leadership position in the development of innovative drugs. It will also serve as an important catalyst for the development of the pharmaceutical industry in Estonia.”

Senior director of business development at Icosagen Cell Factory, Oliver Schub, said, “In 2022, Icosagen Cell Factory worked with over 100 protein drug/vaccine developing companies, in well above 500 projects, producing more than 3 000 different recombinant proteins. Our partner clients can now seamlessly proceed from antibody discovery, over transient preclinical protein production, into stable CHO cell line development, and right into clinical GMP manufacturing, all from one team on a single site. Our unique CRDMO concept results in minimized development timelines, costs and project management efforts.”