Press Release: State aid: Commission endorses EUR45 million of public funding for an R&D project by BIAL in Portugal

The European Commission on 6 July 2005 authorised, under the EC Treaty's rules on state aid, a €45.2 million grant for a research and development project by Portela & Ca S.A. (better known as 'BIAL') in Portugal. The company is active in the pharmaceutical sector and is established in Ave (in the Norte region), an area suffering from an abnormally low standard of living. The project was aimed at developing two new medicines for the central nervous system. As all the requirements of the Community framework for state aid for research and development were satisfied, the European Commission considered that the positive effects of the aid would outweigh possible negative effects on competition in the Single Market and that it was therefore compatible with the EC Treaty (Article 87).