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| According to the article, Trump was trying to get the Tübingen-based CureVac company — which also has sites in Frankfurt and Boston — to move its research wing to the United States and develop the vaccine "for the U.S. only." |
Germany
confirms that Trump tried to buy firm working on coronavirus vaccine
CureVac
boss was at the White House last week to discuss its vaccines plans.
By AITOR
HERNÁNDEZ-MORALES 3/15/20, 8:20 PM CET Updated 3/15/20, 8:41 PM CET
The Donald
Trump administration offered "large sums of money" to get exclusive
access to a coronavirus vaccine being developed by a German company, Die Welt
reported Sunday.
According
to the article, Trump was trying to get the Tübingen-based CureVac company —
which also has sites in Frankfurt and Boston — to move its research wing to the
United States and develop the vaccine "for the U.S. only."
A
spokesperson for Germany's Health Ministry quoted in the article appeared to
acknowledge the U.S. approach and said that Berlin was "very interested in
ensuring that vaccines and active substances against the new coronavirus are
also developed in Germany and Europe."
On Sunday
afternoon, Germany's Health Ministry told Reuters that its spokesperson had
been quoted correctly in the newspaper article, confirming that Washington had
attempted to take over the biopharmaceutical company. Government sources
indicated that Berlin was now offering CureVac financial incentives to remain
in Germany.
German
Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said at a press conference Sunday that he had
heard about the CureVac reports and that it would be discussed at a crisis team
meeting Monday.
Richard
Grenell, the U.S. ambassador to Germany, said on Twitter that the Welt report
was "wrong."
Last week
CureVac CEO Daniel Menichella was among the pharmaceutical representatives
invited to the White House to discuss coronavirus vaccine development with Trump,
Vice President Mike Pence and members of the president's Coronavirus Task
Force.
In a press
release, the company said that Menichella had told U.S. officials about the
vaccines it had in development, and revealed its hope to have an experimental
vaccine ready by early summer.
The news
prompted angry reactions from German politicians who demanded that Berlin do
everything possible to prevent the U.S. from controlling access to an eventual
coronavirus vaccine.
"The
American regime has committed an extremely unfriendly act," said Social
Democrat MP Karl Lauterbach, who said that German health workers on the front
lines — as well as people around the world — needed to have access to something
developed in Germany, and that no country should be able to purchase exclusive
access to the vaccine.
"Capitalism
has limits," he said.
Authors:
Aitor Hernández-Morales
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