Moderna says White House coronavirus vaccine chief is divesting

The former pharmaceutical executive leading the White House’s coronavirus vaccine effort is divesting from vaccine developer Moderna Inc., the biotech company said Monday after early-stage test results sent its stock soaring.

Moncef Slaoui resigned from Moderna’s board of directors when the Trump administration tapped him last week to be chief advisor for its Operation Warp Speed, a push to develop and distribute a vaccine to address the COVID-19 pandemic. But he still had stock options for about 156,000 Moderna shares; based on Friday’s closing price, they were worth about $10 million.

Moderna is among the companies developing a potential vaccine for the virus, and in April the federal government agreed to award it up to $483 million to speed up that process. Continue reading.