On Monday 9 December, the European Commission, through the Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA), signed a €20 million HERA Invest agreement with the Danish biotechnology company SNIPR Biome.
With the support of the European Investment Bank (EIB), this agreement aims to advance the development of innovative therapies that specifically target infections resistant to traditional antibiotics.
This is an important step in the fight against antimicrobial resistance, one of the most pressing threats to global health, says the Commission. SNIPR Biome’s cutting-edge CRISPR technology precisely targets and eliminates drug-resistant bacteria in a product designed to prevent bloodstream infections caused by E. coli.
According to Hadja Lahbib, Commissioner for Crisis Preparedness and Management, antimicrobial resistance is a silent pandemic. “In the EU alone, 35,000 people die every year because of it, and resistant infections place a significant burden on our healthcare systems”.
HERA Invest is supported by €110 million from the EU4Health programme (see EUROPE 13498/17). (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)