Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel saw stocks increase by £623million. Top shareholders and bosses at Pfizer and Moderna made £3.9billion each.
Shares in the pharmaceutical giants rose by 7.4 percent and 13.6 percent respectively in the seven days to November 30 — after South Africa alerted the world to the mutant strain on November 24.
Just eight stakeholders made £7.5billion figure between them. Moderna’s chief executive Stephane Bancel pocketed £623million ($824million) in share growth alone — and sold 10,000 of his own stocks for $319 each on November 26 for a total of £2.41million ($3.19million) upfront.
In the week after Omicron’s discovery in South Africa, investment managing company Vanguard Group Inc made the most money from Pfizer’s shares, seeing their total value increase to £1.3billion.
Bailie Gifford and Co saw the next biggest increase in stock value as the biggest shareholder of Moderna, with their worth increasing by £1.2billion.
Meanwhile, Pfizer’s chief executive Albert Bourla saw his stocks increase in value by nearly £257,000 during the week.
Overall, the top four shareholders and chief executives of both Pfizer and Moderna saw their stocks increase by £3.9million each in total.
Pfizer did not dispute the huge earnings taken in by shareholders after the discovery of the Omicron variant after being approached by MailOnline, the Daily Mail reports.
