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WASHINGTON: Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla sold $ 5.6 million of his shares in the US pharmaceutical company on the same day that he announced promising results for his COVID-19 vaccine candidate, documents filed Wednesday showed ( November 11th).
However, the company has said that the sale was part of a pre-arranged periodic divestment plan when the shares reach a certain price.
According to a disclosure with the US market regulator SEC, Bourla sold 132,508 shares at $ 41.94 each on Monday.
A company executive vice president, Sally Susman, also sold about $ 1.8 million in shares, or 43,662 shares.
Pfizer shares rose more than 7 percent after peaking at more than 15 percent on Monday, when the drugmaker announced that trials so far had shown that the candidate vaccine it was developing with German company BioNTech had a 90 percent effective.
The company had not responded to a request for comment from AFP, but a spokesperson quoted by CNN described the sales as preset.
Sales at that price were previously scheduled as part of his personal financial management, the company said.
These plans are designed to protect executives from accusations of insider trading.
