The Algarve company Sea4Us received around 6 million in funding from the European Innovation Council (EIC) to move forward with clinical tests that will allow a new marine-inspired analgesic to be brought to the market, with «great effectiveness for the treatment of chronic pain».
This is not the first financing received by this marine resources biotechnology company, located in Sagres.
In 2018, Sea4Us received 50 thousand euros from the European Commission to further develop a medicine to relieve those who constantly feel pain, and which is an alternative to morphine and opioids.
O “Sea4Pain” is the main project of the company based in Sagres and is closely linked to the Costa Vicentina. This is where the sponge that provided the main compound of the medicine lives.
The person at the head of this company is Pedro Lima, a graduate in Marine Biology and Fisheries from the University of Algarve, and who has already been honored by the Algarve academy.
Furthermore, Portugal was the second country with the most funding approved by the European Innovation Council.
Only PICadvanced, a company from Aveiro, obtained 17,44 million in financing, being very close to the maximum amount of financing per project, followed by Sea4Us and Targtex (Lisbon), with 14 million.
Since starting in March 2021, the European Innovation Council (EIC) has already financed national companies with around 73,1 million euros, in the EIC Accelerator, the main instrument of the initiative integrated in Pillar III of Horizon Europe.
António Costa Silva, Minister of Economy and the Sea, has already reacted to this news, congratulating Portuguese companies for the «extraordinary result achieved and which positions Portugal as the second EU country with the most approved financing in absolute terms».
«This is yet another clear demonstration of the path the country is taking, asserting itself as a center of innovation and knowledge capable of producing advanced technological solutions. The awarded areas highlight the ability of Portugal and Portuguese companies to make a difference with advanced technological and scientific proposals in the biotechnology of marine resources, in the generation of optoelectronic components and in the area of health sciences», he adds.
Also Elvira Fortunato, Minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education, congratulated the results of national companies and considered that «the national participation registered in Horizonte Europe reaffirms Portugal's position, in international terms, as a country of science and as a State- Member who has been strengthening and promoting the relationship between the academic community and the business sector, thus catalyzing national scientific development».
Finally, António Grilo, president of ANI, states that «Portugal has had an extremely positive performance in Horizon Europe and this balance in access to financing through the EIC has been completely extraordinary. In this round of financing, Portugal has the highest percentage of approved applications – 23% (3 out of 13) – and was the second country with the most approved financing in absolute terms, right after France, which obtained 106,5 M€ for 12 companies ».
«In third place comes Germany, followed by the Netherlands and Belgium. It is important that we continue to work to support these companies to compete for more financing at an international level and bring more prestige and competitiveness to national technology companies. This is a clear sign that researchers in Portugal not only demonstrate excellence at a scientific and technological level, but are also having a high entrepreneurial level, as they are founding deep tech start-ups who will become world leaders», he concludes.
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