WASHINGTON: Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla sold $5.6 million of his stock in the US pharmaceutical company on the same day it announced promising results for its COVID-19 vaccine.
The company has reportedly said the sale was part of a pre-arranged periodic divestment plan when the stock reaches a certain price. The company’s shares soared after Pfizer and Germen drug company BioNTech said early data suggests the vaccine could be more than 90 percent effective.
According to a disclosure with US market regulator SEC, Bourla sold 132,508 shares at $41.94 each on Monday. An executive vice president at the company Sally Susman also sold around $1.8 million in stock, or 43,662 shares.
Pfizer shares rose by more than seven percent after peaking at over 15 percent on Monday, when the drugmaker announced that trials os its vaccine candidate.
The company said the sale was prearranged and that sales at that price were previously scheduled as part of their personal financial management. It said such plans are designed to shield executives from insider trading accusations.
Many executives sell stock at predetermined intervals to diversify their portfolios but delay the sales to avoid appearances of capitalizing on one-off events that can boost company shares. Pfizer’s stock fell more than 1% Wednesday.
Bourla told US network that he learned of the trial’s results on Sunday, a day before they were made public. Shares of Pfizer surged nearly 8% Monday and were flat Tuesday. BioNTech’s stock has rallied even more sharply, rising 15% Monday and another 8% Tuesday.
The Pfizer stock sale comes just a few months after executives at Moderna, a biotech company also working on a COVID-19 vaccine, sold shares following the release of promising trial results.
Moderna was accused of overhyping the vaccine trial results but the company raised $1.3 billion in a stock sale immediately following the vaccine trial announcement.
Executives sold tens of millions of dollars worth of Moderna shares before the company’s stock price fizzled a week later. Some former SEC officials called on Moderna to be investigated for potential illegal market manipulation.
