European Investment Bank THE INNOVATION RESPONSE Activity Report 2021

HEALTHY WORLD

“The COVID-19 crisis is unprecedented. Likewise, the European Guarantee Fund has been more 
than business as usual. It has been unconventional in scope, timeline and its underlying 
instruments, as well as in its governance, with a Contributors Committee representing the 
participating member states as guarantors. Like the virus itself, COVID-19’s economic effects do 
not stop at national borders. Support for companies affected by the economic fallout can be more 
efficient when it reaches beyond individual countries. ”
Ioanna-Victoria Kyritsi, head of European Guarantee Fund implementation unit, EIB
“Life science is a vital solution for pressing global needs. The European Investment Bank has 
directly supported 80 highly innovative, early-stage European biotech or medtech projects to the 
tune of over €2 billion, from new drugs for rare and infectious diseases and immuno-oncology 
treatments to the development of more accurate surgical implants and sophisticated diagnostic 
tools. Supporting resilient health systems, access to primary healthcare, and manufacturing 
capacity for essential medical goods, including vaccines, is a crucial area of our activity. ”
Felicitas Riedl, head of life sciences and health, EIB

European Investment Bank life sciences experts have 
been at the heart of the effort to combat COVID-19 and 
build a healthier future. This section includes what a 
few of them say about the vaccines we financed in 2021 
— and the work we are already doing to guard against 
future pandemics.
Outside the European Union, our development work 
includes projects designed to make vaccination 
equitable and global.
The EIB Group has backed Europe’s small and medium-

sized enterprises through its European Guarantee 
Fund. From a restaurant in Croatia to a bank in Finland, 
here are the stories of businesses that received vital 
financing during the COVID-19 crisis

WHY RISKY IDEAS ARE GOOD 
IN A CRISIS

To get out of this pandemic and avoid future crises, we must take more risk 
and increase innovation in COVID-19 vaccines and all types of life sciences 
research
By Cristina Niculescu and Nadya Velikova

One might say that vaccines have become victims of their own success. The COVID-19 vaccines 
were developed in record time, but it has been hard to gain widespread support for their use. 
We have become accustomed to vaccinations over many decades. But we also have grown much 
more concerned with vaccine safety. Many people today tend to forget or take for granted the 
benefits of vaccination programmes. Fake news and easy access to all kinds of information through 
social media are causing people not to trust their doctors and science as much as they did 50 years 
ago. 
Vaccines and mass vaccination programmes have contributed to the eradication of certain diseases 
in wealthy countries. Today, many infectious diseases from the past are rare and almost forgotten. 
Childhood immunisations have helped eradicate smallpox and have nearly eradicated diphtheria, 
Haemophilus influenza type B meningitis, measles, mumps, poliomyelitis, rubella and tetanus. In the 
developing world, the lack of vaccines still causes children to die, while in developed countries, we 
have the vaccines but there is growing hesitancy to get them. This resistance is jeopardising the 
gains achieved after decades of hard work by the medical community, researchers and 
governments.
Despite the threat that transmissible diseases pose to public health, the development of new 
vaccines has been delayed in the last few years by a shortage of investment for the developers and 
manufacturers involved in research and production. High development costs, low returns on 
investment and all the business challenges involved in the development and production of vaccines 
have forced some biopharmaceutical companies to leave the vaccine development field. All these 
problems have hurt vaccine development for many years. 
Everything in the toolbox
When it became clear that the coronavirus would be a big crisis, the European Investment Bank 
decided to leverage all its financing tools and all the technology that science could offer to help 
companies and society. We did not focus on one company or one technique. We reached out to 
traditional vaccine developers and new ones, such as BioNTech in Germany, which created one of 
the leading mRNA vaccines. mRNA is a novel technology that can pave the way for vaccines to treat 
many other illnesses, including cancer. 
Not every project the Bank supported during this crisis was successful, but we did not have the 
privilege to hope that one solution would work for everyone or the comfort to invest a lot of time 

European Investment Bank Activity THE INNOVATION RESPONSE Report 2021