German company CureVac has received a rather strange offer from the current White House.
On March 3, CureVac's CEO was invited to the White House, for a meeting with President Trump, Vice Pence and several members of the Coronavirus Task Force. Asked for when a vaccine could be ready, he estimated that a potential candidate could be ready within a few months. Apparently, that triggered the members of the meeting so much, that they've now offered to buy the company, at whatever price.
One condition though: production would be exclusively for the United States.
The move is not exactly one to gain popularity, and follows on the heels of the President's worrying statement that "a large number of new clusters in the United States were seeded by travelers from Europe".
(Score: 2) by Bot on Monday March 16 2020, @04:44AM (3 children)
let's play a game. Let's assume Trump goes full berlusconi (the berlusconi of today, i.e. a wreck) and was serious when (if ) he said that thing. As a hypothetical whitehouse advisor, what would you tell him when he says 'here's what we do, we buy the vaccine company and keep it for ourselves')
My answer: sir, you have gone full berlusconi, there is no way such a move would advance our interests and there are a thousand it would hurt us. Please have a brain scan to ascertain you are well.
Personally I think he made a joke (just like berlusconi, ranging from "pretty shitty" to "diplomatic incident") and the german guy didn't understand it was one (colouhr me zurprised).
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by quietus on Monday March 16 2020, @10:30AM (2 children)
It was not a German guy who received the offer, but their CEO, an American. Last Wednesday, he suddenly left the company.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday March 16 2020, @12:41PM
If you can't take the heat, deploy the golden parachute.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by choose another one on Monday March 16 2020, @01:27PM
Yep, definitely some weird sh*t going on here.
https://www.fiercebiotech.com/biotech/was-it-something-he-said-biotech-ceo-who-met-president-trump-month-exits-without-a-word [fiercebiotech.com]
The other piece of the jigsaw that may be important is that this is a multi-national company with bases in both Germany and... USA.
Anyone want to bet that Trump wouldn't give himself (if he hasn't already) and use federal requisitioning powers ("you can sell it to me, or I can take it from you") ?