YEREVAN, MAY 22, ARMENPRESS. At least 9 people have become new billionaires since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic thanks to the excessive profits made by pharmaceutical companies producing its vaccines, The People’s Vaccine Alliance said.

The 9 new vaccine billionaires are: 

1. Noubar Afeyan, Moderna’s Chairman
2. Stéphane Bancel, Moderna’s CEO
3. Timothy Springer, an immunologist and founding investor of Moderna
4. Robert Langer, a scientist and founding investor in Moderna
5. Ugur Sahin, CEO and co-founder of BioNTech
6. Juan Lopez-Belmonte, Chairman of ROVI, a company with a deal to manufacture and package the Moderna vaccine
7. Zhu Tao, co-founder and chief scientific officer at CanSino Biologics
8. Qiu Dongxu, co-founder and senior vice president at CanSino Biologics
9. Mao Huihua, also co-founder and senior vice president at CanSino Biologics

It is reported that the nine new billionaires have a combined net wealth of $19.3 billion.

Editing by Aneta Harutyunyan