No, these companies are not funded with public money.
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?
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.htm... my interpretation is that this was a calculated advance payment.
Example from my home country: the government heavily subsidized the biggest telco’s new cyber security center a couple years back, because it was an ”technological innovation” that would ”bring jobs”. The services provided through this are of course private (as are gains.)
The talent and resources of big corp will usually outwit government policy.
> BioNTech to Receive up to €375M in Funding from German Federal Ministry of Education and Research to Support COVID-19 Vaccine Program BNT162
https://www.wallstreet-online.de/nachricht/12930907-biontech...
> US government and Pfizer reach $1.95 billion deal to produce millions of Covid-19 vaccine doses
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/07/22/health/pfizer-covid-19-va...
The Pfizer funding is just a pre-purchase agreement.
Emphasis on support
That doesn't mean the sum is equivalent to the full R&D cost or that the company actually agreed to give the IP developed.
Most likely they could have developed even without public funding but not on the expedited timeline.
> The goal of the initiative is the expansion of vaccine development and manufacturing capabilities in Germany, as well as the expansion of the number of participants in late-stage clinical trials.
The program is funding clinical trials 1 to 3, having bigger cohorts for trials 2 and 3, and scaling up production while trials are still in progress. In short: Everything that makes vaccine development expensive. Finding the actual vaccine candidates is the cheap part.
Do you have any sources on that?
Going from zero to preclinical is about 1/3 of the costs of going from preclinical to phase 2. Phase 3 is not part of this study, neither is parallel production.
BioNTech is a different vaccine type, hence effectiveness and fact that both moderna and pfizer license it.
The fact that Germany subsidised the last stages to speed it up doesnt mean technology should be public access. That's for the government and company to negotiate.