Novavax Inc. executives just sold millions of dollars’ worth of stock as the Gaithersburg biotech’s share price sustains its most dramatic highs in the last five years.
A handful of the company’s leaders and board members sold 172,979 total shares Tuesday, combining for a worth of nearly $17 million, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings. The sales follow developments in Novavax’s Covid-19 vaccine program that have pushed its share price up as much as 4,650% since the start of the year, amid a global race to find a viable defense against the virus.
“Three Novavax corporate executives sold approximately 145,000 shares in August 2020 for personal reasons. These corporate executives are long-term employees who have been with the company many years, and these sales represented less than 15% of their total holdings,” the company said in a statement provided to the Washington Business Journal. “Two board members, who have served on the Company’s Board since 1998, also sold 18,500 shares for personal reasons, which represented less than 20% of their total holdings. All of these sales were executed during open trading windows in accordance with the Company’s insider trading policy.”
The stock’s climb — from less than $4 per share at the start of the year to a 52-week high of nearly $190 this August — came after a turbulent 2019 that included a failed late-stage clinical trial for a respiratory syncytial virus vaccine and a delisting threat from the Nasdaq. Then the Montgomery County biotech jumped into the Covid-19 arena, a move reminiscent of others it made amid Ebola, Zika, swine flu and bird flu outbreaks, as well as other coronaviruses. But this time it’s paid off, changing the company’s position on Wall Street and raising the potential to tap a market for which there’s tremendous demand.
Novavax’s share price closed trading Friday at about $137 Friday afternoon, down slightly from Thursday’s close. The share price reached between $143 and $147 apiece Tuesday, when Novavax executives cashed out.
These were the biggest moves:
- Dr. Gregory Glenn, Novavax’s president of research and development: He netted $6.2 million before taxes after exercising his right to buy shares at a lower price — for between $25 and $50 a pop. His sales of 57,449 shares were at prices ranging from $143.94 to $146.58 per share. Glenn also gifted 1,528 shares, though SEC filings did not indicate a recipient.
- John Trizzino, Novavax’s executive vice president, chief business officer and chief financial officer, netted roughly $4.2 million from selling 42,788 shares, before taxes after exercising his options to buy shares ranging in price from $27 to $100. Trizzino's stock sales entailed prices that ranged from $142.85 to $153.95 per share.
- John Herrmann, the company’s chief legal officer, also netted roughly $4.2 million from selling 46,242 shares, each at a price of roughly $142 and $143 per share.
- Two board members, both directors since 1998, also sold shares. Gary Evans, CEO of Texas-based Energy Hunter Resources Inc., netted $1.25 million from selling 10,500 shares at $150 per share. Another board member, Michael McManus, CEO of New York-based Misonix Inc., received $947,200 from selling 8,000 shares at $146 apiece.
Some of the shares are tied to options that date as far back as 2011, when Novavax’s stock was trading well below the $25 at which these executives had a right to buy shares. The stock didn’t start to noticeably spike until the spring, when the biotech trudged deeper into the Covid-19 vaccine trenches.
That work has since secured support in the form of partnerships and investments, only increasing in recent months. Novavax has locked deals with Tokyo-based Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies, SK Group vaccine business subsidiary SK Bioscience, Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. (NYSE: TAK), Serum Institute of India Private Ltd., fellow Gaithersburg biotech Emergent BioSolutions Inc. (NYSE: EBS), AGC Biologics and PolyPetide Group.
Those deals build upon funding to get Novavax’s Covid-19 vaccine candidate through clinical trials totaling about $2 billion. That includes $1.6 billion from the federal government’s Operation Warp Speed program; $388 million from the Norway-based Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations; $60 million from the Department of Defense; $200 million from selling its own stock.
The company also acquired Praha Vaccines and its Czech manufacturing facility for $167 million. And it made several executive hires, including appointing David Mott to its board of directors.
Novavax’s phase 2 clinical trial for its Covid-19 vaccine candidate has kicked off in South Africa. It is also now enrolling patients in its U.S. and Australia sites, shooting for up to 1,500 volunteers, Novavax announced Monday. After a successful early stage study, the candidate will need to perform well in those trials — and in a subsequent phase 3 study — to be considered for final approval by the Food and Drug Administration.
“If we continue on our current path,” the company said in its statement, “we expect to begin phase 3 clinical trials as early as October.”
