OREANDA-NEWS. Valneva SE , a leading pure play vaccine company, and the European Investment Bank (EIB), the world's largest multilateral bank, today announced that the EIB granted Valneva a €25 million loan facility to support its vaccine R&D activities.

Valneva plans to use the EIB financing to support the research and development of vaccines including its Lyme Borreliosis vaccine candidate (the only active development program for Lyme Disease in the vaccine industry) which is due to enter Phase I in 2016, and amongst others, further pre-clinical R&D on Zika virus. The Company recently announced the successful generation of a highly purified Zika vaccine candidate, which can now be further tested in animals and potential human studies.

"This is an innovative financing operation, which will have a real impact on the health and daily life of Europe's citizens. Valneva is an excellent example of a European company as it was created by a European cross-border merger and has operations in France, Austria, Sweden and the United Kingdom," commented EIB Vice-President Ambroise Fayolle ahead of the signing ceremony. "Fostering innovation is one of the top priorities of the EU bank. This is why we offer, together with the European Commission, financial products tailored to develop the industrial excellence and competitiveness of companies. It is our responsibility to create the optimal conditions for financing clinical research in Europe, which is essential for developing new vaccines."

Thomas Lingelbach, President and CEO and Franck Grimaud, Deputy CEO of Valneva, added, "We are proud to get the support of the EIB. We see their investment as a token of trust in Valneva's R&D capabilities to advance vaccines for better lives. We appreciate the flexibility that the EIB credit line adds to our financing strategy. As we move towards EBITDA break-even, we will continue to fund the substantial part of our R&D expenses with our commercial product cash flows, limiting our R&D investment to 15-20% of our revenues. At the same time, we will benefit from a strong liquidity position and improved cost of capital as a result of the facility provided by the EIB."

The EIB loan contract is subject to conditions precedent. Following their satisfaction, the €25 million loan, which is offered on favourable terms, may be utilized by the Company in one or several tranches within a 24-month period. Each credit tranche is repayable at the end of a five-year period starting from the drawing date. The loan will be secured by collateral over Valneva's material subsidiaries, mainly ranking behind securities in connection with Valneva's existing asset-based financing. Conditions precedent under the finance contract notably include the signing of an agreement with Valneva's principal current financing provider. Drawings in excess of €15 million will be subject to certain financial performance parameters which the Company expects to fulfil in 2017.

The EIB loan granted to Valneva is part of the European Horizon 2020 initiative, in particular the "InnovFin MidCap Growth Finance (MGF) - EU Finance for Innovators" programme - which provides customised products for supporting the development of innovative SMEs and midcaps.

The EIB Group provided more than €18 billion in 2015 in support of basic, applied and clinical research programmes within the European Union. In France in 2015, 18% of the Group's total investment of just over €8.7 billion was devoted to supporting SMEs, innovation and R&D.

The finance contract between Valneva and the EIB has been supported by KENUP, a civic society organization that promotes fundamental innovation in the European health sector.