Shortly after the disappointing data for the Curevac vaccine was announced, board members of the group sold blocks of shares for many millions of euros. In doing so, however, they got a bad deal.
From a German point of view, the Curevac vaccine is the great disappointment in the fight against the corona pandemic. Although the vaccines, such as those from Biontech and Moderna, are based on mRNA technology, their effectiveness is just under 50 percent instead of over 90 percent. When this data became known in mid-June, the Tübingen company’s share price plummeted dramatically.
Conspicuous transactions by Curevac’s top management around this date are causing a stir. Because four board members of the group sold large blocks of shares in their company in parallel in June, making around 39 million dollars (32 million euros), according to documents from the SEC, which was first reported by Business Insider.
Curevac co-founder and then operational boss Florian von der Mülbe alone sold shares for $ 33.8 million. Chief Financial Officer Pierre Kemula sold shares valued at $ 2.1 million. And the head of development Ulrike Gnad-Vogt and technical director Mariola Fotin-Mleczek each earned around 1.4 million dollars with the sale of shares. Mülbe, who has since left the board of directors, sold half of his Curevac shares in one fell swoop, and his three colleagues even sold more than 90 percent.
Sale only after the crash
The process is explosive, but there is a suspicion that the Curevac bosses wanted to cash in privately before the vaccine flop tears down the company’s value. The financial supervisory authority Bafin had already announced shortly after the price crash that it would investigate suspicious share sales, at the time without naming them. But the story of the failed bosses who quickly cash in is not that simple.
In fact, the Curevac board members only sold their shares after the devastating price crash. On June 17, the rate fell from over $ 90 to under $ 60. According to Handelsblatt, the managers achieved an average price of $ 62 with the stock sales. Even if the price has fallen further since then, to currently around 55 dollars, the corporate executives have had rather bad timing when selling their shares.
Exactly when the sale took place is not known, but the company says there were no stock sales prior to the announcement of the weak data from the vaccine study.
Rules against insider trading observed
The fact that the corporate executives only sold after the price crash is due to the stock exchange rules against illegal insider trading. As an insider in the company, Curevac told Handelsblatt that they would have had to set the share sales months beforehand using a trading plan. There is therefore no connection between the share sales and current company developments. It is even quite possible that the Curevac bosses were still assuming significantly better study results for their vaccine at the time of the sales decision – and were accordingly hoping for a much more lucrative business.
This would invalidate the charge of enrichment through insider trading. Nevertheless, in addition to all problems, Curevac now has to dispel doubts that the management itself still believes in its own success in view of the large sales of shares. “Our board members are still completely convinced of Curevac and our technology and are devoting all their energy to the further development of the company,” announced the group.
However, it is questionable whether the Curevac vaccine will even hit the market. The group, in which Dietmar Hopp and the federal government are among the largest shareholders, is aiming at least for approval for under-60s, because the effectiveness there is slightly over 50 percent. The vaccine is currently not planned for the German vaccination campaign.
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Jane Stock is a technology author, who has written for 24 Hours World. She writes about the latest in technology news and trends, and is always on the lookout for new and innovative ways to improve his audience’s experience.
