A German newspaper reported yesterday that the Trump administration offered "large sums of money" to get a German company to move here and give the U.S. exclusive access to a coronavirus vaccine in development. Via Politico:
According to the article, Trump was trying to get the Tübingen-based CureVac company — which also has sites in Frankfurt and Boston — to move its research wing to the United States and develop the vaccine "for the U.S. only."
A spokesperson for Germany's Health Ministry quoted in the article appeared to acknowledge the U.S. approach and said that Berlin was "very interested in ensuring that vaccines and active substances against the new coronavirus are also developed in Germany and Europe."
On Sunday afternoon, Germany's Health Ministry told Reuters that its spokesperson had been quoted correctly in the newspaper article, confirming that Washington had attempted to take over the biopharmaceutical company. Government sources indicated that Berlin was now offering CureVac financial incentives to remain in Germany.
Clearly, he's looking for ways to monetize it -- and maybe not just for his Big Pharma buddies. Was he trying to take a cut? After all, this pandemic is cutting into his hotel profits and he's got to scare up some revenue somewhere.
His bootlick Richard Grenell insists the story is wrong, but I think we all know better:
Can you imagine Obama doing this, trying to get rights to a badly-needed vaccine during a global pandemic so the pharmaceutical industry can hold the rest of the world at gunpoint?
