Dr. Moncef Slaoui, head of the White House’s initiative to develop a coronavirus vaccine, has promised that by May 20 he will divest himself of $12.4 million in stock options in Moderna, a pharmaceutical company that received $483 million in federal funding for its research into COVID-19. The apparent conflict of interest of Slaoui owning stock in a company that has benefited from his program caught the attention of Democratic lawmakers like Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who criticized him and called for him to sell the shares. Slaoui resigned from the Moderna board to head the COVID-19 vaccine project, dubbed Operation Warp Speed. Progress in Moderna’s research announced Monday sent its trading price soaring, increasing the value of Slaoui’s roughly 156,000 shares, originally disclosed in required financial filings, by roughly $2 million. A spokesperson for Moderna told CNBC, “Dr. Slaoui is divesting all of his equity interest in Moderna so that there is no conflict of interest in his new role.”
