The CEO of Pfizer cashed out 62% of his stocks in the COVID19 vaccine on the day the press release reported that their vaccine had been shown to be 90% effective. The press release led to a 15% jump in Pfizer stock and the CEO gained $millions on the deal.

This is legal if the date of sale is set in advance, as part of a ‘pre-determined trading plan’ – in this case it was set back on August 19th, if the share price reached a certain level.

“Through our stock plan administrator, Dr. Bourla authorized the sale of these shares on August 19, 2020, provided the stock was at least at a certain price,” a Pfizer spokesperson told Business Insider.”

However, the seller, in this case the CEO can affect when the press release goes out. This is exactly what Moderna did with their Phase 1 results, based on just 8 test subjects. The press release went out and within hours the stock has risen substantially and the CEO sold a large number of shares at the new, higher price and personally made millions. (Covered in our news feed on June 4th).

Whatever your thoughts about the vaccine, one thing is for sure, the release of positive information is carefully managed to ensure that top shareholders can take full financial advantage.

Just to put the Pfizer press release into context, the results released were based on just 94 test results out of tens of thousands in the study. Were they hand picked to create a press release worthy of a stock jump? There is no way to know at this stage, but the mainstream media certainly seems to think so.