Trump sought to buy German firm for coronavirus vaccine

BERLIN

German politicians slammed U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday for trying to buy a German pharmaceutical company which has been working on a possible vaccine for coronavirus.

"Germany is not for sale,” Economy Minister Peter Altmaier said on Twitter, and added that the government was in contact with the Tuebingen-based company CureVac on this offer.

The weekly Welt am Sonntag reported earlier that Trump offered $1 billion to CureVac but demanded that the company should develop the coronavirus vaccine “only for the United States”.

Foreign Minister Heiko Maas sharply criticized the U.S. president for trying to get “exclusive rights” to a possible vaccine, and called for a closer international cooperation.

“German researchers are the leaders in development of vaccines, they are taking part in worldwide cooperation,” he said on Twitter.

“We cannot allow others to acquire their research findings exclusively for themselves. We can defeat #COVID-19 if only we act together, and not against each other,” he added.

Germany has been the third worst affected country by the coronavirus pandemic in Europe, after Italy and Spain.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the country have risen to 6,241 on Monday morning, up from 5,813 on Sunday.

The coronavirus death toll in Germany reached to 13 on Sunday, according to the statements of the health authorities in the federal states.