(Photo: Markus Schreiber/Pool via REUTERS)
Germany will invest €300 million (£269 million) in a private biotech firm currently conducting a coronavirus vaccine clinical trial as governments around the globe scramble to contain the disease.
The government's acquisition of a 23 percent stake in CureVac comes after documented attempts by the Trump administration to woo the group and secure a supply of any future drug triggered political backlash in Berlin.
In March, CureVac dismissed claims that the biotech or its technology had received buyout propositions. Germany's investment in CureVac, set to launch clinical trials on healthy volunteers this month, values the two-decade-old group at €1.3 billion.
Privately-owned CureVac will retain total operational and strategic independence, with the federal government not influencing corporate policy decisions, German economic minister Peter Altmaier disclosed during a media briefing. Based in Tübingen, Germany, CurVac also has facilities in Boston and Frankfurt and employs 400 personnel.
CureVac was at the center of publicity in March when numerous news outlets claimed that the Trump administration had approached the company with an offer to obtain exclusive US access to its emerging vaccine and reportedly sought to convince the company to relocate to the US.
A US official denied the claim, saying it was "wildly overplayed," but German ministers were irked, adding that an American control of the German firm was not an option.
Germany's investment with CureVac allows it to improve the chances of using messenger RNA to develop a next-gen vaccine to counter COVID-19. To protect the country's control and ownership of CureVac, the government granted itself new authority to refuse foreign takeover propositions for healthcare firms.
"We are sending a clear message for CureVac here in Germany as a place to do business," Altmaier told media in Berlin, as reported by DW.com.
Germany's investment comes days after reaching an agreement with Italy, France and the Netherlands to acquire 300 million doses of a possible COVID-19 vaccine from the British-Swedish biotech firm AstraZeneca.
Under the agreement, the vaccine will be distributed to all member states of the European Union as soon as it is made. AstraZeneca is partnering with Oxford University on a much-publicized vaccine candidate, with tests on 10,000 subjects getting underway.
Billionaire German businessman Dietmar Hopp, who co-founded European software group SAP, had been the biggest investor of CureVac, with over 80 percent shares. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have also invested in the company.
