AUTODOC

Autodoc, Europe’s largest online retailer of car spare parts, is donating EUR 50,000 to the Stiftung Universitätsmedizin Essen foundation to support the fight against COVID-19. The researchers are studying the biology of the virus together with Chinese colleagues in a laboratory in Wuhan, China. The aim is to develop therapeutic options and preventive measures. As an internationally active company, Autodoc would like to become involved at a global level in the fight against the current pandemic.

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Autodoc GmbH, based in Berlin, is an international company with online shops in 26 European countries. The employees come from all over the world. The current crisis also affects Autodoc employees, customers and suppliers to a high degree. Autodoc would like to take its responsibility as a company and actively participate in the fight against COVID-19. To this end, Autodoc is supporting researchers at the Universitätsmedizin Essen medical center and the Union Hospital in Wuhan in their search for special treatments against the virus.

According to Alexej Erdle, managing partner of Autodoc GmbH, “The corona crisis is a global pandemic that affects us all. We are an international company. That is why we feel a clear responsibility here to contribute to solving this crisis. Every day we see what can be achieved when people from different countries work together, just as the researchers from Essen and Wuhan are doing. Supporting their work is now the best way for us to do something that helps people all over the world, i.e. to fight this pandemic. With this donation, we want to set an example so that every individual as well as every company can think about how to get involved within the scope of their respective possibilities so that we can succeed in overcoming this challenge together.

Researchers against a global pandemic

Since the end of December 2019, the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, has been spreading at high speed. It is the trigger of the COVID-19 disease. The Institute of Virology and the Clinic for Infectiology at the Universitätsmedizin Essen medical center and the Clinic for Infectious Diseases at the Union Hospital in Wuhan have been working closely together for many years. In 2017, a joint research laboratory was founded in Wuhan. Numerous data and samples have been collected and recorded there since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to the number of cases in China, this results in a much larger database than is currently the case in Germany, for example. The laboratory is already in operation and well equipped, but money is still urgently needed to cover the running costs for material and personnel. Autodoc is now supporting the researchers’ work with a sum of EUR 50,000.

Jorit Ness, Managing Director of the University Medical Foundation, is very grateful for the support: “In the current situation, rapid help – which is at the same time sustainable – is essential. Thanks to the research cooperation between Essen and Wuhan, which has been in place for years, professional and established structures are now in place and can be used immediately. It is now important to make additional funds available for the evaluation of the extraordinarily large amounts of data and samples of disease cases. With the donation from Autodoc GmbH we have come a big step closer to our goal”.

Social commitment

Since its foundation in 2008, Autodoc has seen itself as an active part of society and is committed both ideologically and financially to helping disadvantaged social groups. Autodoc therefore regularly supports local initiatives in various European countries.

If you would like to support the research work in Essen and Wuhan, please visit https://www.universitaetsmedizin.de/forschung/corona/ and make a donation online. Or donate directly to:

Stiftung Universitätsmedizin Essen
Hufelandstraße 55
45147 Essen, Germany
E-mail: info@universitaetsmedizin.de
Internet: https://www.universitaetsmedizin.de/
Donation account:
IBAN: DE 0937 0205 0005 0005 0005
BIC: BFSWDE33
Reference: corona research

Autodoc GmbH – a brief profile

Autodoc GmbH is Europe’s leading online dealer for automotive spare parts. As the fastest-growing company in this sector with a 63% growth in turnover in the 2018 financial year to around EUR 415 million (2017: EUR 254 million), Autodoc is aiming to further expand its position. Thanks to its successful expansion, Autodoc is now represented in 25 other European countries in addition to Germany. Autodoc pursues a strong customer focus through social media activities, technical support in the respective national language and demand-oriented product range composition with currently almost 2.5 million products from 545 brand manufacturers for 128 car brands. The online retailer offers a wide range of products from brake systems, body parts, shock absorbers and springs, exhaust systems, interior elements, steering systems and clutches to air conditioning systems, heaters, repair kits and engine oil. In June 2018, the company celebrated its tenth anniversary. Autodoc GmbH is based in the Berlin district of Lichtenberg and is fully owner-managed. In May 2019, the company opened a representative office on Kurfürstendamm in addition to its headquarters.

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