[ad_1]
The financial windfall of Moderna, the biotech company behind one of three federally approved Covid-19 vaccines, has propelled three new names to Forbes magazine’s list of the 400 richest people in the United States. United.
Using stock prices and exchange rates from early September, the magazine’s list added Noubar Afeyan, president and co-founder of Moderna; Robert Langer, professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and co-founder of Moderna; and Timothy Springer, professor at Harvard Medical School and early investor in the company. Each’s reported net worth was over $ 3.5 billion.
A representative for Moderna did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The coronavirus pandemic has been an economic disaster for much of the country, but the wealthiest have fared well, Forbes noted when the list was released on Tuesday: The 400 people included saw their collective wealth increase by 40% over the past year.
Moderna manufactures one of three vaccines authorized in the United States. Headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the company was founded in 2010 with the aim of commercializing RNA-related products. Its only commercial product is the Covid vaccine, for which the US government has provided $ 1 billion to support design and testing. With countries around the world buying as many vaccines as possible, Moderna’s valuation topped $ 100 billion this summer.
The company’s stock price on Wednesday was more than four times its value at the same time last year, even though its stock price fell, with a significant drop of around 18% over the course of the last week alone. Most of that drop came on Friday, after pharmaceutical giant Merck said its new pill to treat Covid-19 reduced the risk of hospitalization and death by around 50%. Merck is considering seeking federal emergency use authorization for antiviral pills.
This drop significantly reduced the value of Moderna’s three billionaires. Dr Springer was No. 176 on the list and was worth $ 5.9 billion when Forbes’ calculations were made on September 3, a figure that had fallen to $ 4.6 billion on Wednesday. Mr Afeyan’s declared value, No.212, has increased from $ 5 billion to $ 3.8 billion. And Dr. Langer’s fortune, No.222, has grown from $ 4.9 billion to $ 3.7 billion, Forbes said.
Moderna’s vaccine, which is built around messenger RNA, like the one developed by Pfizer-BioNTech, was cleared for emergency use for people 18 and older by the Food and Drug Administration last December. Moderna submitted its vaccine for emergency use authorization in 12 to 17 year olds in June and for full federal approval in August; decisions from regulators are pending.
More than 283 million doses of Moderna’s vaccine have been administered in nearly 40 countries that have shared their vaccine distribution data with the Our World in Data project at the University of Oxford, and Moderna’s revenue has exploded since the vaccine has been widely used.
In its latest financial statement, Moderna said its total revenue was $ 4.4 billion for the three months ending June 30, 2021, up from $ 67 million for the same period in 2020. Net profit for the six month ending June 30, 2021, was $ 4 billion, compared to a net loss of $ 241 million during the same period in 2020.
[ad_2]
Source link