Politics - News Analysis
German News: Trump Tried To Bribe Local Pharma For Exclusive US Rights To Potenial Coronavirus Vaccine
No one can really fault Donald Trump for wanting Americans to have access to a coronavirus vaccine in the future, but Germany isn’t pleased with the way he’s reportedly trying to get it.
Per Reuters, Germany’s health ministry confirmed a report from German Newspaper Welt am Sonntag that said Trump has offered funds to lure biopharmaceutical company CureVac, which is working on developing a vaccine for the new virus, from Germany to the United States. Welt am Sonntag quoted an anonymous German official who said Trump would do anything to get a vaccine, “but only for the United States.”
A German health ministry official, meanwhile, said Berlin wants to make sure vaccines and other substances that could be used to fight off the coronavirus are developed in Germany and Europe, as well. Above all, the hope is to avoid exclusivity.
US President Donald Trump is reportedly offering large sums of money to German scientists working on a #coronavirus vaccine, intending to secure it exclusively for the US.https://t.co/NKEhQnj9mE
— DW News (@dwnews) March 15, 2020
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“The exclusive sale of a possible vaccine to the USA must be prevented by all means,” tweeted Karl Lauterbach, a professor of health economics epidemiology and German lawmaker, in response to the report. “Capitalism has limits.”
Trump is attempting to entice German lab CureVac to develop a vaccine exclusively for the US, @WELTAMSONNTAG reports. Germany’s health authorities are in intensive talks with the company to block Trump from buying exclusive rights https://t.co/fD3NpGLUa4
— Alfons López Tena (@alfonslopeztena) March 15, 2020
There was no immediate comment from the U.S. embassy in Berlin, and CureVac declined to comment, but the company’s CEO Daniel Menichella met with Trump, Vice Presidnet Mike Pence, and other members of the White House Coronavirus Task Force earlier this month.
CureVac is narrowing its field of vaccine candidates, and hopes to begin testing in June or July.
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