3 ms·

Biontech's research definitely was funded with public money, over 300€ million, in fact: https://investors.biontech.de/de/news-releases/news-release-details/bio

• meragrin_ 6y ago
  According to the article, they were already in phase 3 and they had not received any of that grant money. Seems to me, it is more about vaccine production at this point.
  • bildung 6y ago
    Correct, though keep mind that this was explicitly demanded for this program: https://www.bmbf.de/foerderungen/bekanntmachung-3035.html https://www.bmbf.de/foerderungen/bekanntmachung-3035.html chapter 4, second bullet point. That doesn't mean they don't get reinbursed for phases 1-3. Of course I don't know for certain, I do have past experience with federal funding in Germany, though. Considering that the company has a history of funding from this source ("BioNTech is already an old friend in our research funding. We - the BMBF - have been promoting this company since it was founded in 2007") https://www.bmbf.de/de/deutschland-kann-innovation-13125.html https://www.bmbf.de/de/deutschland-kann-innovation-13125.htm... my interpretation is that this was a calculated advance payment.
• tinus_hn 6y ago
  They got €300 million but that doesn’t mean the project cost €300 million. This is a pretty normal arrangement where government induces companies to do something by paying at least up to half the cost while the company gets to reap the rewards. I’ve seen it happen in tech but I’m sure it happens in different fields. Of course its a mutually beneficial arrangement, otherwise that would be pretty dumb for a government to do, right?