President Donald Trump is offering a German company funding to develop a coronavirus vaccine exclusively for the United States.
According to German government sources, the U.S. administration is looking into gaining access to a potential vaccine currently being developed by the private German company CureVac.
The German newspaper Welt am Sonntag reports that Trump wants to move CureVac’s research to the United States, and the German government is making counter-offers to make them stay.
A Health Ministry spokesperson confirms this report, and said, “The German government is very interested in ensuring that vaccines and active substances against the new coronavirus are also developed in Germany and Europe.”
She added, “In this regard, the government is in intensive exchange with the company CureVac.”
However, she declined to comment on any possible takeover but referred to Germany’s foreign trade law.
The said trade law states that Berlin can examine takeover bids from non-EU “if national or European security interests are at stake.”
The report also said that an unidentified German government source confirms that Trump wants the scientist’s work exclusively, and will do anything to get the vaccine for the “only for the United States.”
German politicians insist that no country should have a monopoly on any future vaccine.
CureVac announced last week that they are working on a number of coronavirus vaccine, and are in the process of choosing which ones will be used for clinical trials.
The Germany-based company is hoping to have the experimental vaccine ready by June or July before seeking a green light from regulators for human testing.
CureVac is competing against U.S. biotech firm Moderna and German rival BioNTech, with the latter being identified as Pfizer’s potential collaboration partner.
The U.S. embassy in Berlin is yet comment on this report, while Welt am Sonntag said Curevad declined to comment.