The European Commission is ready to offer up to 80 million euros to support CureVac, a German company that is currently working on researching a vaccine for the Covid-19 virus. The Commission details that the funding reach up to 80 million euros, with the objective of "scaling up the development and production of the coronavirus vaccine in Europe".
In a statement released today, the European Commission indicates that Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and Marya Gabriel, European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, discussed the issue with CureVac managers, via video conference.
The Vice-President of the European Investment Bank was also present for the online conference. The European Commission's monetary aid will be made available under the Horizon 2020 program. “In this public health crisis, it is of the utmost importance to support our leading researchers and technology companies. We are determined to provide CureVac with the funding it needs to scale up the development of a coronavirus vaccine. I am proud to have a leading company like CureVac in the European Union. Their home is here, but vaccines will benefit everyone, in Europe and abroad,” said Ms. von der Leyen, quoted in the Commission's statement.
This week, CureVac was at the centre of an international discussion over the commercialization of the vaccine - according to the German press, Donald Trump tried to negotiate the exclusivity of the vaccine to the United States.
One of the main investors, billionaire Dietmar Hopp, regarded as one of the most hated men in Germany, denied the existence of these negotiations. Through a statement, Hopp made public that "if we succeed in developing an effective vaccine, it should help and protect people around the world", rejecting the idea of exclusivity.
The vaccine being developed by the German company could is expected to reach the stage of clinical tests in June this year, indicates the Commission. Created in 2000, this is not the first time that the company has been recognized by the European Commission. CureVac received the European Union's first innovation prize in 2014, worth two million euros.
With the expanding Covid-19 outbreak, having been classified by the WHO as a pandemic, the European Commission has already announced that it will mobilize up to 140 million euros of public and private funding to respond to the virus.
So far more than 78,000 global recovery cases have been reported, and this number is expected to be higher in reality, as it only accounts for recoveries following official diagnosis from testing.
