Moderna’s chief executive Stephane Bancel offloaded another $1.74 million (€1.46 million) of shares last week while the world awaits for the biotech company to be the second to file its vaccine for emergency use in the US.
Stock in Cambridge, Massachusetts based Moderna climbed as much as 4.3 per cent to $101.77 on Monday. The sale comes after Pfizer and BioNTech became the first companies to complete a submission for a vaccine to U.S. regulators on Friday. Moderna is likely to file its vaccine next week, Morgan Stanley analysts said.
Mr Bancel sold 9,000 directly owned shares and 10,000 indirectly owned shares at an average price of $91.73 starting on November 18th, according to the filing. Mr Bancel and other freshly minted billionaires gained over $400 million last Monday on the heels of encouraging trial news.
Rally
The recent rally lifted Bancel’s net worth to $3.1 billion, based mainly on his 6 per cent stake in the business, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Mr Bancel and other Moderna executives have been steadily selling off their stakes throughout the pandemic, mostly through 10b5-1 trading plans. These plans let insiders sell shares at set times and prices without facing insider trading accusations and have faced increasing scrutiny as of late.
Last week, Dow Jones reported the outgoing Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Jay Clayton called for a “cooling-off period” on such trades. Earlier this month, Pfizer executives used such a plan to sell shares.
With Pfizer’s vaccine already filed for an emergency use authorization, Morgan Stanley analysts led by Matthew Harrison expect the drug-making giant’s shot to be authorized in mid-December and Moderna’s shot within a week of that. – Bloomberg
