Commission offers financing to German biopharma CureVac for COVID-19 vaccine

The European Commission announced on Monday it had offered €80bn of financial support to the German pharmaceutical company CureVac, to speed up the development of a COVID-19 vaccine for Europe, following discussions with the company held through videoconference.
The support would come in the form of an EU guarantee of a loan by the European Investment Bank (EIB) that is currently being assessed.
Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth Mariya Gabriel said that EU’s Executive body is “committed to support further its EU-based research and innovation in these critical times. Science and innovation in Europe are at the heart of our policies for protecting people’s health.”
“We are determined to provide CureVac with the financing it needs to quickly scale up development and production of a vaccine against the Coronavirus,” Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said.
“I am proud that we have leading companies like CureVac in the EU. Their home is here. But their vaccines will benefit everyone, in Europe and beyond,” von der Leyen added.
The announcement came a day after the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag published a story saying that US President Donald Trump offered ‘large sums of money’ to the German firm CureVac, to secure exclusive rights to a vaccine the company is currently working on, and that he also asked for the transfer of the company’s HQ to the US.
Trump allegedly tried to lure CureVac to make a ‘US Vaccine’
Quoting an anonymous German government source, the newspaper said that Trump was doing everything he could for rights to a vaccine “only for the US.” The same day, the Tübingen-based biopharmaceutical company CureVac tweeted that no such offer was made by President Trump, rejecting “any claims on a possible sale of the company or its technology,” and the White House also dismissed the charge.
On March 11, CureVac released a statement announcing that its CEO Daniel Menichella, who is a US citizen, was unexpectedly leaving the firm and would be replaced by the company’s founder, Ingmar Hoerr. Earlier in March, Menichella was invited to the White House, to discuss with President Trump a strategy for the rapid development of a COVID-19 vaccine.