The EU bank had signed a €50 million loan in December 2019 to help the company work on cancer treatments and was impressed by the company's team. The Bank signed the latest loan, worth €100 million, in June, after an accelerated approval that concentrated into two months a process that normally takes longer than a year. The new loan was designed to help BioNTech's vaccine trials and manufacturing. The loan is backed by the InnovFin Corporate Research Equity programme and the European Fund for Strategic Investments, which support innovative and higher risk projects financed by the European Investment Bank with a guarantee from the EU budget.