On Sunday, Reuters were told by German government that the government of USA was looking into how it could gain access to a vaccine developed by a German firm, CureVac.
CureVac works on coronavirus vaccine!
Washington was stopped by Berlin from persuading a German company seeking a coronavirus vaccine to shift its research to USA. This has resulted in prompting politicians in Germany for insisting that no country has any monopoly on a future vaccine.
Source: CNBC
A German newspaper, Welt am Sonntag, reported that President Trump offered investment for luring CureVac to USA.
The government of Germany was making counter-offers. The ambassador of USA to Germany, Richard Grenell, said: “The Welt story was wrong.”
Another USA official said that they will continue to talk to any organisation that does claim to offer any help.
Source: Reuters
Welt am Sonntag reported that Trump tried to secure the work of the scientists’ exclusively. He would do anything for obtaining a vaccine for USA.
Horst Seehofer, The interior minister of Germany, told a news conference that the coronavirus crisis committee of the government will discuss the case of CureVac on Monday. CureVac issued a statement on Sunday that said: “CureVac rejects any acquisition rumors”.
Dietmar Hopp, CureVac’s main investor, stated that he wanted CureVac for developing a coronavirus vaccine. He said that he will be happy if this can be attained through his long-term investments out of Germany.
Experimental Vaccine
CureVac’s chief production officer and co-founder, Florian von der Muelbe, told Reuters that the company initiated with various candidates for coronavirus vaccine. Now it was selecting the best two for clinical trials purpose.
Curevac hopes to obtain an experimental vaccine that would be ready by July.
CureVac had secured financial backing in 2015 as well as 2018 for development of projects from an investment by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The company was developing a vaccine to to prevent influenza and malaria.
In the field of mRNA therapeutics, CureVac competes with US based Moderna and fellow German company BioNTech.
Medicines that are based on mRNA provide a genetic blueprint and this can be injected into the body. They can instruct the body cells to produce the required therapeutic proteins.
For vaccines, the mRNA allows body cells for producing antigens. They are the molecules on the viruses surface. They spur the immune system into action.
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