US and Germany scrap over coronavirus vaccine company
Berlin is trying to prevent Washington from persuading a German company working on a coronavirus vaccine to move to the US.
German government sources told news agency Reuters that the US was looking into how it could gain access to a potential coronavirus vaccine being developed by German pharmaceuticals company Curevac.
German newspaper the Welt am Sonntag reported that US President Donald Trump had offered money to lure Curevac to the US and the German government was making counter-offers to persuade it to stay.
“The German government is very interested in ensuring that vaccines and active substances against the new coronavirus are also developed in Germany and Europe,” a German health ministry spokespersons said.
“In this regard, the government is in intensive exchange with the company CureVac,” they added.
Welt am Sonntag also quoted a German government source as saying Trump was trying to secure the scientists’ work exclusively, and would do anything to get a vaccine for the US, “but only for the United States”.
Curevac today said: “The company rejects current rumors of an acquisition”.
A German economy ministry spokesperson said Berlin “has a great interest” in producing vaccines in Germany and Europe.
They cited Germany’s foreign trade law, under which Berlin can examine takeover bids from non-EU, so-called third countries “if national or European security interests are at stake”.
Florian von der Muelbe, Curevac’s chief production officer and co-founder, told Reuters last week the company had started with a multitude of coronavirus vaccine candidates and was now selecting the two best to go into clinical trials.
The privately-held company based in Tuebingen, Germany hopes to have an experimental vaccine ready by June or July to then seek the go-ahead from regulators for testing on humans.
On its website, Curevac said chief executive Daniel Menichella earlier this month met Trump, vice president Mike Pence, members of the White House coronavirus task force and senior representatives of pharmaceutical and biotech companies to discuss a vaccine.
Karl Lauterbach, a professor of health economics and epidemiology who is also a senior German politician tweeted: “The exclusive sale of a possible vaccine to the USA must be prevented by all means. Capitalism has limits.”