Today, the Commission and the European Investment Bank announce the creation of HERA Invest, a €100 million top-up to the InvestEU programme, to support research and development (R&D) in the most pressing cross-border health threats, financed by the EU4Health programme. Currently, European companies find it difficult to access sufficient public and private funding for the development and scaling up of cutting-edge solutions in health and life sciences. Innovation is needed to respond to priority health threats such as pathogens with high pandemic potential or resistance to antibiotics.

HERA Invest, a flagship initiative of the European Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority, will focus on health emergency prevention and preparedness, helping address these challenges by:

• promoting R&D in Europe to strengthen strategic autonomy;
• reducing market failures, where financial resources do not cover the financing needs;
• leveraging public funding to incentivise private investment;
• creating new medical countermeasures to protect against health threats.