According to The Washington Times, at least three people with an interest in the coronavirus vaccine battle have recently made a list of America's top 400 wealthiest people.
Noubar Afeyan, the chairman of Moderna and one of the company's founders, as well as board member Robert Langer, another co-founder, and early investor Timothy Springer, all made their debuts on this year's Forbes list.
The three have a stake in the biotech company, which saw its stock rise last year when it logged billions of dollars in vaccine sales alongside Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech as the virus spread. Johnson & Johnson in the United States and AstraZeneca in Europe have stated that they do not intend to profit from their vaccines during the epidemic.
According to Forbes, Afeyan, the chairman of Moderna, has a net worth of approximately $5 billion. The engineer, who was born in Beirut to Armenian parents and moved to the United States during Lebanon's civil war, has assisted in the founding of numerous other businesses.
Langer's net worth was estimated to be $4.9 billion by Forbes on Tuesday, based on stock prices from September, SEC data, and other sources. Langer is an MIT scientist with hundreds of patents. Springer, a Harvard immunologist who invested millions when the company was launched in 2010, was valued at $5.9 billion.
Since it was first approved last year, more than 152 million doses of Moderna's shot have been provided in the United States. It's one of three coronavirus vaccinations that health workers in the country are delivering, and it's also marketed doses to European countries and Canada.
The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based firm's messenger RNA-based technology makes it the first to test a coronavirus vaccination in a human. It also received a lift in the markets as a result of the quick response. At the same time, it has been chastised for selling early dosages to countries with the best bids, and doubts have been raised about whether its skyrocketing stock price is generating profit for investors.
