Pfizer chief sold $ 5.6 million in shares on the day of the Covid vaccine announcement | Pfizer

The chief executive of Pfizer sold shares in the company worth $ 5.6million (£ 4.2million) on the day the drugmaker announced its Covid-19 vaccine was effective in more than 90% to protect people from the transmission of the virus, triggering an increase in the shares of the company. .

Albert Bourla sold 132,508 shares at $ 41.94 per share, or 62% of his stake in Pfizer, according to documents filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). That’s near the high of $ 41.99 the stock price hit on Monday.

Pfizer said the shares were sold through an automated system after reaching a certain price, as part of a plan put in place in August.

Pfizer stock opened at $ 41.94 on Monday morning after the announcement, up 15% from Friday’s close of $ 36.40, and ended 7.7% higher at 39, $ 20. They have since fallen 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-arranged plan (10b5-1), which, under SEC rules, allows major shareholders and insiders to listed companies trade a number of shares at a predetermined time. “

The vaccine has worked much better than most experts had hoped and has no serious side effects, according to interim analysis from Pfizer and its German development partner, BioNTech. Bourla hailed it as “the greatest medical breakthrough of the past 100 years”.

Pfizer is working to turn 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.

This is the first coronavirus vaccine proven to be effective, but a number of more are in development, and final global clinical trial data is awaited from AstraZeneca in the UK , in partnership with the University of Oxford, and the American biotech Moderna 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 evenly split between the two companies.