Spain: EUR 20 million EIB loan to DeepUll accelerates early

PRESS RELEASE
Luxembourg, 13th December 2022

Spain: EUR 20 million EIB loan to DeepUll accelerates early detection and diagnosis of Sepsis

The EIB and DeepUll have signed a EUR 20m loan agreement to finance research, development and innovation.
The EU financing will enable the development of an automated diagnostics device, leading to faster and more accurate early sepsis diagnosis.
The EIB to support a Spanish company under the EC’s InnovFin Infectious Disease Finance Facility (IDFF).

The European Investment Bank (EIB) is providing DeepUll, a medical diagnostics company developing culture-free, affordable diagnostic solutions for the early identification of sepsis and other acute infections, with a EUR 20 million loan to finance its Research Development and Investigation (RD&I) activities for its highly innovative, easy-to-use diagnostics platform to accelerate and improve accuracy in acute infections and sepsis diagnosis.

The EIB loan will enable DeepUll to increase its RDI activity to further develop its automated diagnostics device, which has the potential to enable faster and more accurate early sepsis diagnosis than the present standard of care, in turn improving treatment efficacy and patient outcomes.

The EIB venture loan is financed under the Infectious Diseases Finance Facility set up as part of Horizon 2020, the European Union’s research and innovation programme for 2014-2020. The combination of the EIB’s expertise and the European Commission’s support with the InnovFin guarantee has made it possible to set up an innovative financing package tailor-made to the needs of DeepUll.

Ricardo Mourinho Félix, European Investment Bank Vice-President said: “Finding cures to global diseases can only be achieved through greater investment in innovation. The signature with DeepUll today bears witness to the impact that European finance can bring to companies developing new technology in the medical diagnostics field. Together we can address infectious diseases, whilst mitigating their impact on populations and economic growth at a global scale.”

Mariya Gabriel, European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, said “The EU research and innovation programme supports innovations which bring about technologies to help improve our lives. The Commission is proud to participate in this deal and support DeepUll’s efforts to develop an innovative testing platform for sepsis, automate the process and improve the diagnostics services for patients.”

Jordi Carrera, Chief Executive Officer at DeepUll, said: “This funding will support us in accelerating the development of our sepsis identification platform. We believe our product has tremendous potential in rapidly improving patient outcomes and streamlining hospital processes in order to identify at-risk patients as early as possible and provide support for treatment decisions.”

Sepsis diagnostics

DeepUll’s sepsis product is designed to detect more than 250 different pathogens and about 15 resistance genes in one hour starting from 10mL of whole blood. The product will generate phenotypic antimicrobial susceptibility results in about eight hours, without requiring a positive blood culture. The product will be a desktop system with end-to-end automation with the aim to be placed in any clinical setting (laboratory, ER, ICU). The product will also utilise artificial intelligence to offer seamless medical decision support across all phases of patient management, from early disease recognition, to precise diagnostics, up to therapy guidance.

Background information:

The European Investment Bank (EIB) is the long-term lending institution of the European Union owned by its Member States. It makes long-term finance available for sound investments in order to contribute towards EU policy goals. The European Investment Bank (EIB) issues long-term loans on behalf of the European Union.

DeepUll is a medical diagnostics company developing culture-free diagnostic solutions for sepsis and acute infections. Founded in 2020 in Barcelona by the founders of STAT-Dx (sold to QIAGEN in 2018), DeepUll has assembled a team of world-class experts to create rapid, affordable and accessible diagnostic solutions.

The InnovFin Infectious Diseases Finance Facility (IDFF) is dedicated to supporting the fight against infectious diseases. This joint European Commission and EIB Group initiative is part of Horizon 2020, the 2014-2020 EU research and innovation programme. The IDFF enables the EIB to provide between €7.5 million and €75 million of funding to innovative players active in developing vaccines, drugs, medical and diagnostic devices and research infrastructure for combating infectious diseases. The financing mainly goes to projects that have completed the preclinical stage and need clinical approval for further development.

Press contacts:

EIB: David Yormesor, yormesor@eib.org, tel.: +352 4379 89076, mobile: +352 621 554 578
Website: www.eib.org/press – Press Office: +352 4379 21000 – press@eib.org