Of Giacomo Tognini
Shares of companies producing vaccines, antibodies and other "weapons" to tackle the coronavirus pandemic have skyrocketed since March 2020. The unprecedented "explosion" of shares in the health sector "gave birth" to at least 40 new billionaires associated with these companies.
At the same time, a prominent shareholder in Moderna - the venture capital Flagship Pioneering company, headed by Moderna co-founder and chairman Noubar Afeyan - redeemed the rise in the biotechnology company by selling valuable shares more than $ 1,5 billion since the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus outbreak on March 11, 2020.
Executives at Moderna and other pharmaceutical companies that developed coronavirus vaccines, such as Pfizer and Novavax, also sold $ 400 million worth of shares over the same period, bringing the total to $ 1,9 billion.
Afeyan, whose fortune is estimated at $ 2,3 billion by Forbes, owns a large stake in Moderna, mainly through his majority stake in Flaship, which he founded in 2000. Two of Flagship's investment funds -Flagship Ventures Fund IV, LP and Flagship Ventures Fund IV-Rx, LP- sold 53% of their stake in Moderna, a total of approximately $ 10,3 million, for more than $ 1,4 billion (before taxes) in three packages, at the end of February and at the end of March of the current year. Previously, the two funds had sold an additional 1 million shares of the company for $ 68,2 million (before taxes) in May 2020.
According to documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Afeyan owns at least 75% of Flaship's equity, and the company directly owns 4% of Flagship Ventures Fund IV, but has not participation in the Flagship Ventures Fund IV-Rx.
Although Moderna's CEO may have made the biggest sales, the pharmaceutical executive who has personally sold the most shares is Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel.
Bancel has sold about 1,7 million shares - or 7% of its stake in the company - for a total price of $ 161,2 million (before taxes) from March 2020 to date, taking advantage of the rapid rise in share of the biotechnology company since the outbreak of the pandemic. Bancel still owns 6% of the company, part of its $ 5,5 billion fortune, which includes options to buy Moderna shares worth about $ 1,5 billion.
The Moderna stock closed at $ 23,61 each in March 11, 2020; it then hit a record high of $ 185,98 on February 8, 2021, and closed at $ 169,50 on April 21, with gains above of 600% compared to its pre-pandemic price.
The next largest seller of shares is Bancel colleague and head of Moderna's medical department, Tal Zaks, who earned $ 108,2 million (before taxes) from sales of shares of the biotechnology company. Moderna's fifth-largest shareholder, President Stephen Hoge, has sold $ 65,5 million worth of shares since March 2020; Hoge's stake in Moderna is worth about $ 300 million, but he also owns stock options. of the company worth $ 545 million.
The team of Moderna executives who have sold shares of the company is completed by Juan Andres, head of technical activities and quality of the company, who has sold shares worth $ 27,2 million.
In total, Moderna executives and Flagship investment funds have "redeemed" shares worth about $ 1,9 billion (before taxes), taking advantage of the explosive growth of its share from March 2020 until today.
However, not all the billionaires that Moderna has shown have followed their tactics. Co-founder Timothy Springer and co-founder Robert Langer, both professors at Harvard and MIT, respectively, also became billionaires thanks to their stake in Moderna, but neither has sold a single stake since the company was founded. 2010. Forbes estimates that Springer's fortune is $ 2,6 billion, while Langer's is $ 2,1 billion.
In this category belongs another billionaire who emerged from the pandemic: Uğur Şahin of the German biotechnology company BioNTech, has never sold shares of the company he founded in 2008 together with his wife (and head of the medical department of the company Tüz) ci . BioNTech shares have risen more than 400% since March 11, 2020, and Forbes estimates Şahin's fortune at $ 6,4 billion.
There are, of course, other executives in the pharmaceutical industry who have sold shares, but not to the extent that Moderna executives did. Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla sold about 60 percent of his stake in the pharmaceutical industry as part of a pre-arranged sales plan in November for $ 5,6 million (before taxes).
Also, Stanley Erck, CEO of Novavax - which aims to secure emergency licensing of its coronavirus vaccine from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the second quarter of 2021 - sold shares in Novavax worth about 9,3 million (before taxes) in late September and early November. Another Novavax executive, Glenn Gregory, president of research and development, has also sold nearly $ 20 million (pre-tax) shares since March 2020.
With Capital.gr