[News] Pfizer says early data signals COVID-19 vaccine is 90% effective

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by Johnny Makarov

Umm he sold 2/3 of his holdings!

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/pfi...sale-1.5798089

So he is almost completely devoid of his holdings - that is surprising and unusual.

Doesn't change anything though.

[Enoch Root]

On the other hand however, if it turns out that this announcement of a potential vaccine turns out to be completely bogus, THEN we really might have something nefarious on our hands here.

If the news is real, there is every reason to believe the the stock will continue to do well, so him selling on Monday is no big deal. However, if it's bogus and the stock drops back down to levels from the past couple weeks, then I am sure there will be serious scrutiny on the announcement and his role with it.

[GGG]

Isn’t this why we have stock based executive bonuses

In advance they decided what date they were going to sell based on what they believed would be a good share price due to having a successful Covid vaccine. Then they were incentivized to perform well to deliver the vaccine ahead of the sale date. This is the system functioning properly

Now if the data was falsified or if they would have held onto the data if it were negative to complete the sale that is when there would be issues.

[bc-chris]

i was watching the news yesterday and they said there is an independent body that was conducting the testing of the vaccine. from that story it mentioned that they presented their findings to pfizer on sunday and then on monday pfizer released the info.


this isn't the story i'm referring to, but at 3:34 the guy is asked about the timing:
https://www.cnn.com/videos/business/...-gupta-vpx.cnn


is he telling the truth? i don't know - don't really care to be honest. i'm sure there will be lots of conspiracy theories about the timing but whatever. does it really matter?

[Strange Brew]

Originally Posted by Slava

Well the real devils advocate argument is along those lines. These guys are on the verge of saving the global economy trillions (?), so who really cares if they got paid?

(And it's not the test at all, but Pfizer shares didn't rocket up Monday and in fact gained a lot less than a pile of others)

Yeah if you really wanted to see if he was playing games, check and see if he was buying up travel related stocks before the announcement.

[opendoor]

Originally Posted by JohnnyB

Yeah, my guesses based on what I've read is that he probably expected a general market upturn after the election and knew the company was in with a decent shot to have a vaccine back when he made the bet in August, then likely withheld info about them already manufacturing the vaccine and setting up the supply chain until it was going to maximize share price at the time of the preplanned sale.

Them manufacturing the vaccine and setting up a supply chain isn't news; that's been known for months now. The US signed a deal with Pfizer in July based on them producing and delivering 100 million doses by the end of 2020.

It's also possible that they held back the news because they didn't want Trump to get a boost before the election, maybe also thinking that a Biden win would spur the markets.

Whatever did happen, it's hard not to be suspicious of the timing as manipulated to achieve some objective that is not purely corporate interest.

Where's the evidence that they held back the info? They've said for a long time that they expected a readout in late October/early November and that it would take about a week from the monitoring board analysis to announcement. And as of late October, the monitoring board hadn't reported anything. So the announcement date of Nov 8th fits right in with that timeline.

I mean, I wouldn't put it past a CEO to adjust the timing of announcements to benefit himself, but is there actually any evidence of that in this case? If anything, based on what bc-chris linked above, they might've rushed the announcement since they didn't seem to wait the week between the readout and the announcement.

[KTrain]

Pfizer's CEO sold $5.6 million in stock the day he announced promising vaccine news

https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/11/inves...ine/index.html

[Azure]

If the vaccine is promising, why would he sell? Once it is being administered to the public and jurisdictions start opening up I'd expect Pfizer to climb, no?

I'm not saying they are lying, but I don't understand why someone well sell, especially if their stock didn't exactly jump like it could have.

Was it timed to sell in advance?

[Strange Brew]

Originally Posted by Azure

If the vaccine is promising, why would he sell? Once it is being administered to the public and jurisdictions start opening up I'd expect Pfizer to climb, no?

I'm not saying they are lying, but I don't understand why someone well sell, especially if their stock didn't exactly jump like it could have.

Was it timed to sell in advance?

It's not so much the timing of the sale that people want to debate, which had been scheduled, but timing of the announcement.

[Ashasx]

nm

[Sidney Crosby's Hat]

Originally Posted by Azure

If the vaccine is promising, why would he sell? Once it is being administered to the public and jurisdictions start opening up I'd expect Pfizer to climb, no?

I'm not saying they are lying, but I don't understand why someone well sell, especially if their stock didn't exactly jump like it could have.

Was it timed to sell in advance?

Yes, it was timed to sell in advance.

If I was him, I'd probably sell as well. Being the first to announce vaccine efficacy probably results in a bump. Later this month, Moderna then Oxford then Johnson & Johnson in December will be announcing theirs and with each of those announcements, expect a Pfizer drop. Especially Johnson & Johnson which doesn't need to be stored in as cold temperatures and doesn't require a booster shot.

[Firebot]

Originally Posted by Azure

If the vaccine is promising, why would he sell? Once it is being administered to the public and jurisdictions start opening up I'd expect Pfizer to climb, no?

I'm not saying they are lying, but I don't understand why someone well sell, especially if their stock didn't exactly jump like it could have.

Was it timed to sell in advance?

Executives need to issue their intent to sell in advance to avoid exactly what the CEO is being accused of right now, the news could have also been disastrous. Either way it's a sign of confidence that he sold on the expected good news.

If the CEO expects a bump in price based on the news and thinks it will be positive, and the date of the news is known, why not sell on the expectation?

It's only news because of the timing, but the timing was laid out in advance.

[Azure]

I don't have a problem with the sell, and as I expected it was planned in advance.

I just find it curious that he would. Obviously he's not overly bullish on his companies future stock potential.

[burn_this_city]

He sold while the market was still processing the fact this stuff needs to be kept at -75c.

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by burn_this_city

He sold while the market was still processing the fact this stuff needs to be kept at -75c.

if he was that astute at market timing, he wouldn't need to cheat

[Leeman4Gilmour]

Originally Posted by burn_this_city

He sold while the market was still processing the fact this stuff needs to be kept at -75c.

I hope they let it warm before injection.........

[GGG]

Originally Posted by burn_this_city

He sold while the market was still processing the fact this stuff needs to be kept at -75c.

Is that a big deal?

I believe it’s shelf stable for a week at refrigerated temps and -75C is above dry ice temps so packing and shipping should be possible. This seems like a remarkably small challenge for 1st world countries who would be driving stock price.

[Huntingwhale]

Personally I don't give a crap if/what he sold at the right/wrong time. Let the ethics commission figure that out.

Vaccine = good

[CalgaryFan1988]

Important tidbit for people who haven't read the article of the sale

"Susman's sale was also planned well in advance in accordance with rules, and was scheduled to happen on Monday as of almost a year ago"

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/pfi...sale-1.5798089

[cam_wmh]

Originally Posted by GGG

Isn’t this why we have stock based executive bonuses

In advance they decided what date they were going to sell based on what they believed would be a good share price due to having a successful Covid vaccine. Then they were incentivized to perform well to deliver the vaccine ahead of the sale date. This is the system functioning properly

Now if the data was falsified or if they would have held onto the data if it were negative to complete the sale that is when there would be issues.

Further, do we know if, or how far back they were on a blackout from trading ?

The other executive of the two in the article scheduled it a YEAR AGO.

This is a non-story.