US President Donald Trump is attempting to entice a German lab to develop a vaccine exclusively for the US, a German newspaper reported. Berlin health authorities are in intensive talks with the company.
The governments of Germany and the United States are wrestling over the German-based company CureVac which is working on a vaccine for the novel coronavirus, reported German newspaper Welt am Sonntag.
The prominent German media outlet reported, citing unnamed sources, that US President Donald Trump was offering large sums of money to German scientists working on a vaccine. He wanted to secure exclusive rights to their work, the newspaper reported.
Trump was doing everything he could to secure a vaccine for the United States, “but only for the US,” the newspaper quoted an anonymous German government source as saying.
The newspaper reported that the German government has tried to offer the company financial incentives to remain in Germany.
A German health ministry spokesman told Die Welt that the government was in “intensive” dialogue with CureVac.
“The German government is very interested in having the development of vaccines and treatments against the novel coronavirus undertaken in Germany and Europe,” the spokesman said.
Read more: Coronavirus: Is Germany doing enough to slow the outbreak?
CureVac declined to comment to Die Welt. The company is based in the southwestern German city of Tübingen and works with the Paul Ehrlich Institute, linked with the German health ministry. It also has sites in Frankfurt and the US city of Boston.
On Friday, CureVac co-founder and chief production officer Florian von der Mülbe told Reuters that research into several possible vaccines had begun and the two most promising would be chosen for clinical tests. The company hoped to have an experimental vaccine developed by June or July, and then to get approval for testing on people.
Meeting with Trump
Trump on Saturdaytested negative for the coronavirus after potentially being exposed to several cases.
The COVID-19 outbreak, which started in China, has spread across the globe with more than 156,000 confirmed cases and 5,800 deaths. More than 70,000 people have recovered from the virus, which presents for most people as a mild to moderate illness, but can become a serious condition in others.
On March 2, CureVac’s then-CEO Daniel Menichella attended a meeting at the White House to discuss coronavirus vaccine development with Trump and members of his coronavirus taskforce.
On March 11, the company announced Menichella would be replaced by company founder Ingmar Hoerr, without giving a reason why.