RAKING IN THE COVID PROFITS: Moderna bigwigs make debut in Forbes’ top 400 richest Americans
(Newstarget, Oct 11, 2021)
Three key figures from Moderna have made it to the list of top 400 richest people in America. Chairman Noubar Afeyan, board member Robert Langer and early investor Timothy Springer each made their debut in this year’s tally produced by business magazine Forbes.
They each own a stake in the biotech company, which has logged in billions of dollars in vaccine sales as the virus spread and seen its shares soar last year.
Despite the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic’s toll on many businesses, the 400 richest Americans this year are a combined 40 percent richer than last year’s.
Former President Donald Trump fails to make the cut for the first time in 25 years as some of his core assets lose their value in the pandemic. Meanwhile, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos tops it for the fourth year in a row, with Tesla’s Elon Musk in second place.
The estimates by Forbes are based on stock prices from September, SEC documents and other records.
Forbes has estimated the fortune of Afeyan to be nearly $5 billion. Afeyan, an engineer and one of the founders of Moderna, was born in Beirut to Armenian parents and left during Lebanon’s civil war.
Langer’s net worth is estimated at $4.9 billion. He is a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) scientist who has hundreds of patents. Springer has the biggest estimated net worth of the three at $5.9 billion. He is an immunologist at Harvard University who put in millions when the company was founded in 2010.
Moderna is one of three main vaccines being rolled out in the U.S., and has sold doses to European countries, Canada and other parts of the world as well.