Dispute over vaccine company in Tübingen

Florian Tiefenböck studied human medicine at the LMU Munich. In March 2014, he joined as a student and has supported the editorial team with medical articles ever since. After receiving his medical license and practical work in internal medicine at the University Hospital Augsburg, he has been a permanent member of the team since December 2019 and, among other things, ensures the medical quality of the tools.

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US President Donald Trump is said to have offered money to a pharmaceutical company in Tübingen to secure the development of a vaccine against the novel coronavirus exclusively for the USA. The government is outraged. The company itself rejects an exclusive contract.

(ft / dpa) - According to “Welt am Sonntag” there are disputes between Germany and the USA over the Tübingen-based company CureVac, which is working on a vaccine against the corona virus. US President Donald Trump is the driving force.

Allegedly high amount of money offered

As the newspaper reported, citing government circles, Trump is trying to lure German scientists to America with a large sum of money or to secure the drug exclusively for his country. “But only for the USA,” the federal government says.

Outrage from government circles: Not "America first"

Criticism came among others from Karl Lauterbach (SPD) on Twitter: “Capitalism has limits”. Germany should also no longer be dependent on China and the USA for pharmaceuticals, according to the SPD health expert.

"This is an ethical, not an economic or even a national question," said the vice-chairman of the SPD parliamentary group, Bärbel Bas. "A pandemic is about all people and not about" America first "."

Government funding for vaccine development

The Federal Ministry of Research pointed out that research - also at CureVac - is being funded with state funds. "The federal government has recently greatly expanded the financial support for the developments," said a spokesman for Minister Anja Karliczek (CDU).

"The federal government is very interested in vaccines and active ingredients against the novel corona virus also being developed in Germany and Europe," the "Welt am Sonntag" quoted the spokesman as saying. According to SPD politician Bas, the federal government released another 140 million euros for corona research a few days ago.

CureVac rejects exclusive contract

According to a report in the newspaper “Mannheimer Morgen” (Monday), an exclusive contract for a vaccine against Sars-CoV-2 for the pharmaceutical company is out of the question anyway. The aim is to develop a vaccine for the whole world, said the managing director and co-founder of the main investor dievini Hopp BioTech Holding, Christof Hettich.

Other founders and managing directors of the company, such as SAP co-founder Dietmar Hopp, would also hold on to the company, its employees and the location.

CureVac has been researching a vaccine against Sars-CoV-2 since January. According to the “Welt am Sonntag” report, the company is working together with the federally owned Paul Ehrlich Institute for Vaccines and Biomedical Medicines.

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