The Covid-19 pandemic took the European Union by surprise, revealing the weaknesses of the Twenty-Seven when it came to coordinating on health matters. Four years later, the lesson has been learned. Launched in 2021, Hera, the European agency designed to anticipate and respond to public health emergencies, has since been working to build a community health shield. With this objective, it announced, on Monday, October 7, the allocation of a budget of 20 million euros to Fabentech, based in Lyon.
This financing, created by the European Investment Bank, is part of the Hera Invest program, endowed with 100 million euros, and intended to support companies working on the research and development of medical countermeasures against the most threatening pathogens. Fabentech thus becomes the first company to benefit from this system.
Enough to allow the French biotechnology company, one of the few specialized in this market niche, to continue its acceleration. “Our goal is to launch six products in the next five years, with a turnover goal of 200 million euros in 2030”details Sébastien Iva, president of the board of directors of Fabentech. With 3 million euros in turnover in 2023, Lyonnais, which has around fifty employees, is still far from the goal, but its management wants to have confidence.
Serious bites
The company fumbled for several years before finding the recipe for success. Founded in 2009 by a former Sanofi executive, Bertrand Lépine, Fabentech has specialized since its launch in the development of emergency treatments against emerging infectious diseases. Their first targets: the H5N1 bird flu virus, Ebola or even the Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever.
The young company focuses on the production of immunotherapies based on polyclonal antibodies, a technology already proven in the manufacture of antidotes against severe snake bites, and for which Fabentech has acquired an exclusive exploitation license from Sanofi. “Unlike monoclonal antibodies, which, like snipers, attack in a specific location, polyclonal antibodies act over a broader spectrum. Therefore, they will have a much better chance of neutralizing the target if it mutates.”Iva explains.
The technological and industrial bet is a success, but commercial opportunities are scarce and biotechnology is stagnant. Discovered by the Ministry of the Armed Forces, it made a strategic shift in 2019, expanding its scope of action to bioterrorist threats. This tipping point allows it to obtain public orders from governments that want to build up preventive stockpiles of antidotes for their populations. “We currently have three products in development to respond to bioterrorist threats, including one that should obtain marketing authorization in 2025”Mr. Iva specifies.
