Last Updated on June 19, 2020, 6:30 AM AST by Anthony Morris
German Finance Minister, Peter Altmaier confirmed on Monday that the German Government would be investing in the biotech firm CureVac.
The move of investing follows the attempts by the United States in March of acquiring a stake in the company.
Germany will be paying €300 million ($337.4 million) for a 23% share in the company.
Altmaier said during a news conference that the Government of Germany has decided to invest in this company because it expects that this would accelerate the development programmes and will also provide CureVac, the means to harness the full potential of the technology that it has.
He added that Germany wants to strengthen the life sciences and biotech sectors and that the German Government will not have any authority over the business strategy of CureVac.
To safeguard Germany’s ownership of country’s two coronavirus vaccine developers, CureVac and BioNTech the federal Government gave itself powers in May to reject foreign takeover bids for these healthcare companies.
Altmaier said to the reporters in Berlin that they are sending a clear signal for CureVac here in Germany as a place of business.
Until now, Dietmar Hopp, a billionaire German entrepreneur and co-founder of the European software company SAP, had been the major investor for the company, with over 80% of the total shares of the country.
Germany’s investment has come days after it had signed an agreement with France, the Netherlands and Italy to procure 300 million doses of a potential coronavirus vaccine from AstraZeneca, a British-Swedish pharmaceutical group.
Under the deal, all the EU member states must receive supplies of the vaccine of COVID-19 as soon as it is discovered.
AstraZeneca, in collaboration with Oxford University, is working on a vaccine candidate, with trials on 10,000 participants currently underway.
The first trial results of a coronavirus vaccine which is being developed by CureVac are expected to come in two months.
CureVac, said this week that the first meaningful results could be available in September or October and, under favourable conditions, the vaccine could be approved by the middle of next year.
Anthony Morris covers stories related to politics and regional developments. His in-depth reporting about governance and reforms makes him stand out in regional journalism, with a deep analysis of political trends and their impact on Caribbean communities.
