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Pfizer’s chief executive officer sold $ 5.6 million (£ 4.2 million) worth of company stock on the day the drugmaker announced that its Covid-19 vaccine was more than 90% effective in protecting people from transmission of the virus. virus, prompting a surge in the company’s shares. .
Albert Bourla sold 132,508 shares at $ 41.94 a share, equivalent to 62% of his stake in Pfizer, according to filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This is close to the $ 41.99 peak that the stock price hit on Monday.
Pfizer said the shares were sold through an automated system after they reached a certain price, according to a plan established in August.
Shares of Pfizer opened at $ 41.94 on Monday morning after the announcement, up 15% from Friday’s close of $ 36.40 and finished 7.7% higher at $ 39.20. Since then, they have dropped back to $ 38.40. Global stock markets hit record highs that day in hopes the vaccine could help end a pandemic that has killed more than a million people.
The company said: “The sale of these shares is part of Dr. Bourla’s personal financial planning and a pre-established plan (10b5-1), which allows, under SEC rules, major shareholders and insiders to Publicly traded corporations trade a predetermined number of shares at a predetermined time. “
The vaccine worked much better than most experts expected and has no serious side effects, according to interim analysis by Pfizer and its German development partner BioNTech. Bourla hailed it as “the greatest medical advance in the last 100 years.”
Pfizer is working to convert the vaccine into a powdered formula. In its current form, the vaccine must be stored at -70 ° C, which poses significant distribution challenges, especially for low-income countries.
It is the first coronavirus vaccine that has been shown to work, but several others are in development, and final data are awaited from global clinical trials from AstraZeneca UK, in partnership with the University of Oxford, and from Modern Biotechnology. from USA before the end. of the year.
Pfizer did not participate in Donald Trump’s Operation Warp Speed drug development program and used $ 2 billion of its own money to develop the vaccine, which was invented by BioNTech. The vaccine could generate nearly $ 13 billion in global sales next year, according to analysts at Morgan Stanley, which would be split evenly between the two companies.
