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Tübingen-based company Curevac: 100 million vaccine doses by the end of the year
Photo: THOMAS KIENZLE / AFP
SAP founder and billionaire Dietmar Hopp no longer expects his company Curevac to be the first company with a vaccine against Covid19.
"We cannot win this race," said Hopp to the "Handelsblatt", in view of the more advanced developments at the two main competitors, the US company Moderna and the Mainz company Biontech.
"But we want to win the race for the best vaccine and we have a good chance there."
Nevertheless, Hopp announced that he would like to start mass production in the fall and have more than 100 million vaccine doses available by the end of the year.
He does not expect approval until spring or summer 2021. In a restricted form, however, it may also be possible earlier, "for certain, particularly endangered professional groups or regions."
However, the SAP founder ruled out a Curevac entry by US billionaire Elon Musk, with whom Hopp met this week.
A deeper collaboration with the Testa founder will probably take place: "probably yes," said Hopp.
CureVac's vaccines are based on what is known as messenger RNA (mRNA).
CureVac works with Tesla subsidiary Grohmann to manufacture them.
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