Moroccan doctor Moncef Slaoui, who was appointed last week by Donald Trump to lead the US coronavirus vaccine project, will divest $12.4 million worth of his stock options in pharmaceutical manufacturer Moderna, CNBC reports. The former Moderna executive resigned from his position as member of the company's board of directors earlier in May after he was appointed by President Donald Trump to co-chair Operation Warp Speed. «Dr. Slaoui has resigned from his position as an independent member of the Board of Directors for Moderna. Further, he has directed the divestiture of his equity holdings in Moderna and that sale should be effective tomorrow morning», Caitlin Oakley, a spokeswoman told CNBC on Monday. «Furthermore, Dr. Slaoui has committed to donate to cancer research all incremental value accrued from his Moderna shares between the evening of Thursday, May 14, prior to the announcement of his position on Operation Warp Speed and the time of sale, scheduled for tomorrow morning», Oakley added. The same source indicated that Slaoui will not be paid by the government for leading the country's efforts in finding a vaccine for the novel coronavirus. Slaoui owns 150,000 shares of Moderna. On Friday, Slaoui was officially appointed by Trump as head of Operation Warp Speed. «I have very recently seen early data from a clinical trial with a coronavirus vaccine and this data made me feel even more confident that we'll be able to deliver a few hundred million doses of vaccine by the end of 2020 and we will do the best we can», he said at a news conference with Trump on Friday.
