Germany takes stake in company making virus vaccine

German government on Monday anunced it is taking a 23% stake in CureVac, a German company working on a potential vaccine for coronavirus, underlining its determination to keep key industries in country.  state-owned KfW development bank will buy 300 million euros ($337 million) in CureVac shares, Ecomy Minister Peter Altmaier said, ding that aim is to give CureVac "financial security."

He said government won't exert influence on CureVac's business decisions, with main shareholder in CureVac remaining Dietmar Hopp, co-founder of German-based business software company SAP. In March, Chancellor Angela Merkel's chief of staff, Helge Braun, said that German officials h h "very intensive contact" with Curevac and that re h been "thoughts of enticing it to United States."

He didn't elaborate on nature of U.S. interest. CureVac and n-U.S. ambassor to Germany rejected a newspaper report at time that President Donald Trump apparently h offered German firm a large amount to secure its work for U.S.  anuncement that government will acquire a stake in CureVac comes only two days after drugmaker AstraZeneca struck a deal with a vaccine alliance formed by Germany, France, Italy and Nerlands to supply up to 400 million doses of an experimental COVID-19 vaccine. All or European Union member states will have chance to take part.

Or companies, including Moderna and Safi, are racing to develop and produce a vaccine to protect against new coronavirus, a step experts say will be crucial to allowing countries to ease public health lockdowns and restrictions on public life.