(Natural News) The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has created nine new billionaires from the pharmaceutical industry.
Campaigners from the People’s Vaccine Alliance, whose members include Global Justice Now, Oxfam and UNAIDS, have analyzed Forbes Rich List data to highlight the massive wealth being generated for a handful of people from vaccines which were largely publicly funded.
Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel topped the list and is now worth $4.3 billion after his company became the second to be granted emergency use authorization in the U.S. for its COVID-19 vaccine in December last year. (Related: Move aside, Big Pharma: BIG COVID is a trillion-dollar industry and those who profit from it will make sure covid never goes away.)
CEO and co-founder of BioNTech Ugur Sahin is not far behind with a wealth of $4 billion, following its collaboration on a vaccine with Pfizer.
Other Moderna executives have also profited, with immunologist and early investor Timothy Springer now worth $2.2 billion, Chairman Noubar Afeyan $1.9 billion and scientist and founding investor Robert Langer $1.6 billion.
Senior executives from CanSino Biologics have also become billionaires over the last year with the Chinese firm’s co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer Zhu Tao now worth $1.3 billion, co-founder and Senior Vice President Qiu Dongxu worth $1.2 billion and co-founder and Senior Vice President Mao Huinhoa $1 billion.
CanSino has developed a one-shot vaccine that was approved for use in China this February.
ROVI Chairman Juan Lopez-Belmonte also made the list with $1.8 billion. Spanish contract drugmaker Rovi makes bottles for Moderna’s vaccine and last month reached a new deal to start making its active ingredients.
Combined worth of new Big Pharma billionaires enough to vaccinate all people in low-income countries
The industry’s nine new billionaires have a combined worth of $19.3 billion.
With the average vaccine costing $19 and 775,710,612 people
Author: Nolan Barton
Dear readers
What is the value of having billions of dollars if your product maims and kills innocent people?.
I would much prefer to stay in the middle class in an average home than create misery for millions of my fellow humans that were created in the image of God and may now tragically die early
God bless
Philip