Italy to Be First Beneficiary of EU Malaria Fund: Siena-Based Achilles Vaccines srl to Receive Financing to Fight Malaria and COVID-19
19.6.2020 10:37:00 EEST | Business Wire | Press release
The EU Malaria Fund (EUMF) yesterday presented its first investment into Achilles Vaccines srl at the premises of Fondazione Monte dei Paschi di Siena in Italy. The investment supports development of a novel Malaria vaccine on its versatile technology platform transforming bacteria, natural carriers of molecules harmful to human health, into an efficient delivery system of bio antigenic molecules to produce low-cost, safe and self-adjuvanting fit-for-purpose vaccines. The EUMF funding, with support from Fondazione TLS, will also be used to advance Achilles’ project to develop a novel human monoclonal antibody against COVID-19.
The first recipient of EUMF funding, Achilles, is a Siena-based biotech company specialising in research on malaria, antimicrobial resistance and, lately, COVID-19. “Achilles Vaccines is proud to contribute to the search for vaccines to eliminate malaria, a disease that faded into the background in these dramatic months, but which still claims significantly more victims than COVID-19 does, especially among children. Thanks to the guidance of Dr Rappuoli, we escape the challenge of finding a therapeutic and prophylactic drug with our monoclonal antibody, that finally makes the pandemic in which we find ourselves manageable”, said Riccardo Baccheschi, President and CEO of Achilles.
Holm Keller, Managing Director of EUMF and Chairman of kENUP Foundation said: “The EU Malaria Fund has high hopes, that the investment at the heart of the Siena vaccine hub in Italy will help to accelerate the eradication of Malaria. I am delighted that in these trying times, innovative Italian companies, like Achilles, will play a role in developing solutions against COVID-19".
The European Commission and the European Investment Bank (EIB) are investing €111 million into the fund. “Vaccines are important for disease prevention,” said Ambroise Fayolle, EIB Vice President in charge of innovation. “But often they also generate lower revenues than drugs and other health care services and are thus less attractive for private investors. This is why initiatives like the EU Malaria Fund are so important. We are glad to see the first investment of this Fund materialise so quickly and hope that it will allow AchilleS to progress in this important field of research.”
“We are very proud to be the first Italian foundation to invest in the EU Malaria Fund. With a 1 million euros amount, the Fondazione MPS is pursuing two main goals in a long-term vision: supporting scientific research for those diseases that have a big impact on public health and attracting financial resources with long-term benefits for the province of Siena. – said Carlo Rossi, Chairman of Fondazione Monte dei Paschi di Siena, “We also appreciate that the EU Malaria Fund will support the COVID-19 research, as it represents, at the moment, the most important worldwide sanitary challenge that requires huge common efforts”.
The EIB and WHO support the development of the EU Malaria Fund. “Together with WHO’s technical expertise we are confident of accelerating the development of new and innovative tools. The first investment of the EU Malaria Fund in Achilles will meaningfully advance the renewed efforts in our fight against Malaria” said Dr Pedro Alonso, Director of the World Health Organisation’s Global Malaria Programme.
The EUMF is a public-private partnership between the European Union, international organisations, corporations, and organized civic society, providing a novel funding instrument to address market failures in infectious diseases with significant relevance to public health globally. Further information can be found at www.controlMalaria.eu.
The video of the event can be found at https://www.controlmalaria.eu/news
To view this piece of content from cts.businesswire.com, please give your consent at the top of this page.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200619005083/en/
Contact information
Achilles Vaccines:
Eleonora Cossa
e.cossa@vrelations.it
+ 39 347.7467250
About Business Wire
For more than 50 years, Business Wire has been the global leader in press release distribution and regulatory disclosure.
Subscribe to releases from Business Wire
Subscribe to all the latest releases from Business Wire by registering your e-mail address below. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Latest releases from Business Wire
FEINDEF 27 Accelerates Commercialisation, Surpassing FEINDEF 25’s Total Exhibition Area by 25% With One Year to Go17.6.2026 14:41:00 EEST | Press release
One year ahead of FEINDEF 27, FEINDEF, Spain’s International Defence and Security Exhibition, continues to maintain a strong commercialisation pace, outperforming previous editions at the same stage. The exhibition has already surpassed the total exhibition area occupied at FEINDEF 25 by 25%, reflecting the strong interest across the sector in participating in the next edition and reinforcing its appeal amid the continued growth of the defence and security industry. Organised by the Fundación Feindef, the exhibition will hold its fifth edition from 18 to 20 May 2027 at IFEMA Madrid, with the objective of consolidating a new phase of growth and strengthening its position as a leading international platform bringing together institutions, industry stakeholders and professionals from across the defence and security ecosystem. In this context, FEINDEF 27 is expected to exceed 89,000 m² of total exhibition area, representing a 46% increase compared to FEINDEF 25 and expanding its capacity t
GenNx360 Capital Partners Promotes Pratik Rajeevan to Partner17.6.2026 14:00:00 EEST | Press release
GenNx360 Capital Partners (“GenNx360”), a New York City-based private equity firm investing in U.S. lower middle market industrial services and business services companies, is thrilled to announce the promotion of Pratik Rajeevan to Partner. Pratik has significant transaction experience having invested in over ten platform companies and 30 add-on investments during his tenure at GenNx360. His experience includes investments in aerospace and defense, utility and environmental services, and testing and inspection services. Pratik is a key leader in investments in NVI, Shenandoah, and Aeron in the GenNx360 Fund IV portfolio. Pratik led successful investments and exits in Miller Environmental and Aero3 in GenNx360 Fund III. Most recently, Pratik was responsible for the firm’s $2 billion exit from Precision Aviation Group, a global aerospace and defense maintenance and repair business in GenNx360 Fund IV. “Pratik is a disciplined and thoughtful investor with significant execution capabiliti
Vercel Brings New Agent Framework, Full-Stack Capabilities, and Enterprise Controls to Its Agentic Infrastructure Platform17.6.2026 13:13:00 EEST | Press release
Today at Ship, its annual conference, Vercel introduced a set of new products that deepen its agentic infrastructure platform trusted by DoorDash, Helly Hansen, OpenAI, Stripe, and The Weather Company. Founder and CEO Guillermo Rauch and other Vercel leaders unveiled the lineup on stage, anchored by three shifts the products address: agents are now the dominant way software gets deployed, every application is becoming agentic, and enterprises need to run agents in production securely and at scale. The transition is well underway. Six months ago, fewer than three percent of deployments to Vercel infrastructure were triggered by coding agents. Agents now account for more than half. Token volume through Vercel's AI Gateway has grown from roughly two trillion to twenty trillion per month over the same period. And over the past year, Vercel has invested heavily in Python and backend frameworks, with a growing share of customers now running backends and databases alongside their frontends. "
NIQ Introduces NIQ Cadence: A Compound AI Operating System for Marketing Effectiveness17.6.2026 13:00:00 EEST | Press release
NIQ (NYSE: NIQ), a global leader in consumer intelligence, today introduced NIQ Cadence, a compound AI operating system built to change how organizations measure marketing performance, optimize budgets, and act on what the data tells them. NIQ Cadence brings data and intelligence into one continuous environment, moving marketers off fragmented reports and onto a single system that empowers decision making. Marketing has never been more complex. Channels keep multiplying, data sits in silos, and the pressure to prove ROI keeps climbing. As a result, most teams still stitch insight and action together by hand, losing time and confidence at every handoff. NIQ Cadence closes that gap with one system where measurement and decision-making finally run together. “Marketing leaders don’t need more reports. They need a better rhythm,” said Jason Tate, General Manager of Marketing Effectiveness at NIQ. “NIQ Cadence moves organizations beyond disconnected data, siloed tools, and disparate insights
WISE Closes Oversubscribed Series D Financing Round of €30 Million, Welcoming ENEA Tech and Biomedical as Strategic New Investor17.6.2026 13:00:00 EEST | Press release
WISE S.p.A., a pioneering medical device company specializing in advanced implantable electrodes for neuromonitoring, neuromodulation, and brain-computer interface (BCI), today announced the successful closing of an oversubscribed Series D financing round totaling €30 million. The round was joined by ENEA Tech and Biomedical, an Italian foundation dedicated to innovation and technology transfer in the biomedical sector, which enters WISE's investor base as a strategic partner. This final closing builds on the first closing of the round completed in June 2024, which included a venture debt facility from the European Investment Bank (EIB) supported by InvestEU, alongside an equity investment from new investor Wallaby S.p.A. — the family office of the Scagliarini family (GVS S.p.A.) — and existing financial partners New Frontier S.r.l., Eureka Venture SGR, and Indaco Ventures SGR. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20
In our pressroom you can read all our latest releases, find our press contacts, images, documents and other relevant information about us.
Visit our pressroom