EIB Pours €15M Into Colombia's VaxThera for 250M-Dose Vaccine Plant

The European Investment Bank will lend Colombian biotech VaxThera €15 million (US$17 million) in venture debt to build a vaccine plant capable of producing 250 million doses a year, the bank said on September 23 at the 81st United Nations General Assembly in New York.

The loan is the first installment of a €35 million (US$39.8 million) financing package already approved for the company. VaxThera will use the funds to construct, fit out and validate the second phase of a large-scale integrated facility for vaccines and biological medicines, including upstream processing and precision filling.

What does the deal actually cover?

The €15 million tranche is structured as venture debt, a form of credit extended to high-growth companies without requiring them to surrender equity. VaxThera will gain the capacity to manufacture liquid and lyophilized biological products, with output scalable to 600–700 million doses in a pandemic scenario, the bank said in a joint statement with the European Commission and Global Gateway.

The financing also covers technology transfer and R&D work targeting unmet medical needs, and will support a contract manufacturing service for other biological products once regulatory authorization is secured.

Who else is on the cap table?

The loan is guaranteed under the European Commission's Human Development Accelerator (HDX), an instrument of the European Fund for Sustainable Development Plus (EFSD+). The EIB's health-sector investments under the HDX umbrella are paired with grants from the Gates Foundation.

A separate €1.5 million (US$1.5 million) grant under the same HDX instrument will fund technical assistance for three candidate vaccines drawn from VaxThera's R&D portfolio.

Why Colombia, and why now?

EIB Vice President Ambroise Fayolle framed the deal as a regional resilience play. "This investment will strengthen Colombia's vaccine research and manufacturing capacity, as it will allow VaxThera to produce up to 250 million doses annually and will help Latin America prepare for future health emergencies," Fayolle said in the statement.

He added: "Through its support for innovation, skills and technology transfer, the EIB contributes to creating a more resilient regional healthcare ecosystem, while also promoting the priorities of the European Union's Global Gateway strategy."

What does Colombia get out of it?

The project targets a long-standing structural problem: Colombia's dependence on imported vaccines and biological medicines. By building domestic capacity, the investment aims to shorten supply chains and shorten the response window when a new pathogen emerges.

Jozef Sikela, the European Commissioner for International Partnerships, put the geopolitical framing on the deal. "This investment makes it possible to combine European technology and expertise with Colombian production and research capabilities," Sikela said. "It creates skilled jobs; strengthens R&D, and facilitates more reliable access to essential health products both for Colombia and for Latin America as a whole."

What gaps does this fill?

Biotech innovators typically struggle to raise long-term debt because the sector demands heavy upfront capital, runs on multi-year development timelines, and carries scientific and regulatory risk. The EIB's venture debt structure is designed to underwrite that risk profile directly, and the loan is expected to mobilize additional private capital into Colombia's biotech sector, the bank said.

The project also carries a workforce component. EIB financing will fund high-value-added jobs in scientific and technical fields, the statement said, and is intended to anchor a broader national biotechnology ecosystem around Medellín-area operations.

What to watch next

VaxThera still needs regulatory clearance before it can put its own vaccines on the market. The next milestones investors will track are validation of the second-phase plant, advancement of the three R&D candidates backed by the €1.5 million grant, and the disbursement of the remaining €20 million tranche under the approved €35 million package.