In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Horizon 2020 (H2020), the EU’s biggest research and innovation program, invested almost €6M ($7.1M) for COVID-19 related research and drug development in April 2020. This demonstrates how granting agencies have reacted quickly to prioritizing COVID-19 research, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

Keshalini Sabaratnam, Pharma Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “All seven pharmaceutical R&D grants awarded by H2020 between May 2019 and April 2020 pertained to the Infectious Disease therapy area, the majority of which were for advancing early stage drug development towards clinical development, rather than early drug discovery research.”

The Italian Bio/Pharma company Dompe Pharmaceuticals SPA, which concentrates on rare and orphan diseases, received approximately €3M ($3.5M) for early discovery research, aiming to find new treatment options for COVID-19. The Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen German Research Center for Health and Environment GmbH received approximately €1M ($1.2M) for COVID-19.

Austria-based Apeptico received over €1.5M ($1.8M) for repurposing its Phase II candidate solnatide for COVID-19. This subsequently received regulatory approval by the Italian Medicines Agency for the treatment of COVID-19 patients suffering from pulmonary edema, and acute respiratory distress syndrome in May 2020.

Sabaratnam adds: “This shows that the program is successfully adapting to the rapidly changing landscape of COVID-19, and reflects a strong focus on helping promising candidates move toward clinical development and commercialization.”