The Strategist

Pfizer CEO earns $ 5.6M in company shares as COVID-19 vaccine proves 90% successful



11/12/2020 - 03:21



Pfizer's CEO Albert Bourla sold the company's shares for $5.6 million on the day the company, together with BioNTech, declared the vaccine to be 90% effective against coronavirus. Following the news of the success of the drug, the company's shares grew by 15%.



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On November 9, Albert Bourla, CEO of Pfizer, USA, sold 132,508 shares of the company under his control at a price of $41.94 each, according to an application filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. As a result, he earned almost $5.6 million.

On the same day, Pfizer and the German company BioNTech said that the coronavirus vaccine they were developing showed more than 90 percent effectiveness in Phase 3 of the trial. Following this announcement, Pfizer's shares rose by 15% on the stock exchange, Bloomberg reported.

A spokesperson for Pfizer told Reuters that the sale of the shares took place as part of a predetermined plan created back on 19 August. According to the rules of the Securities and Exchange Commission, such a plan "allows large shareholders and insiders of listed corporations to trade a predetermined number of shares at a predetermined time," said the company's representative.

The third phase of the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine trials started on 27 July with 43,000 participants, almost 40,000 of whom have received a second dose so far. Until mid-November, the companies will continue to collect data on the safety of the vaccine and then forward it to the US FDA. If the US regulator approves the vaccine urgently, the first doses can be delivered by the end of this year.

BioNTech Strategic Manager Ryan Richardson previously said that the price of the product would be noticeably lower than the market price and could vary from region to region as the company wants rich and developing countries alike to have access to it.

source: bloomberg.com, reuters.com