President Donald Trump has taken to trying to coax a German company looking into a coronavirus vaccine into relocating research efforts to the United States and sharing findings exclusively with the United States, a German newspaper revealed and Reuters later confirmed with Germany’s Health Ministry. “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 Health Ministry official told the newspaper Welt am Sonntag. “In this regard, the government is in intensive exchange with the company CureVac.” Apparently, so is Trump.
But more than that, an unidentified source in the German government told Welt am Sonntag Trump was trying to get exclusive access to the scientists’ research and said he would do anything to acquire the vaccine, “but only for the United States.” Welt am Sonntag also reported that Trump offered the company money and in turn, the business was entertaining counteroffers from German government officials.
An unnamed U.S. official reportedly hasn’t denied the accusations, according to Al Jazeera. "This story is wildly overplayed,” the official told the news source. “The US government has spoken with many [more than 25] companies that claim they can help with a vaccine. Most of these companies already received seed funding from US investors."
"We will continue to talk to any company that claims to be able to help. And any solution found would be shared with the world," the official said. Florian von der Muelbe, CureVac’s co-founder, told Reuters the company was in the process of selecting two clinical trials last week and hopes to have an experimental vaccine available in June or July to go before regulators for human testing. CureVac said in a statement Al Jazeera obtained Sunday that the “company rejects current rumours of an acquisition" and that although the business has been in contact with several authorities and organizations around the world, it denies "allegations about offers for acquisition of the company or its technology."
Officials reported more than 3,000 cases of the coronavirus in the United States and at least 61 resulting deaths by Sunday, according to NBC News. Trump said in video MSNBC obtained earlier this month that after talking to pharmaceutical companies "we've asked them to accelerate whatever they're doing in terms of a vaccine.” After hearing the news of Trump’s proposal to CureVac, Karl Lauterbach, a health economics professor, tweeted a message that translates to: “The exclusive sale of a possible vaccine to the USA must be prevented by all means. Capitalism has limits. We also cannot continue to depend on pharmaceuticals from China and the USA. Our research policy needs a reversal”
