Although Novavax’s coronavirus vaccine candidate has yet to be approved, some of its execs just raked in major rewards from its skyrocketing shares.
According to auditing by Reuters, Novavax’s CEO, Stanley Erck, and three of his top lieutenants have sold $46 million in company stock since the beginning of 2020. Erck alone cashed in $8.7 million in shares — a major jump over the total of $2.2 million in shares he sold over the previous five years.
Shares for Novavax have shot up by nearly 3,000 percent as the company has worked to advance its coronavirus vaccine candidate. The company’s vaccine just entered late-stage trials in the U.S. after two delays related to scale-up issues. The vaccine is also being tested in the UK and the company is expected to announce results from those trials in the first quarter of this year.
Novavax isn’t the only company with a coronavirus vaccine to experience a major boost in share prices — and big sell-offs from executives. Last year, Moderna’s CEO cashed in about $40 million in stock while the company’s chief medical offer sold around $60 million.
The sell-offs were pre-planned and in line with regulations adopted to avoid insider trading.
Read the full Reuters report.
