Moderna vaccine’s success lands founders on Forbes’ Richest list

It’s been quiter a profitable year for COVID-19 vaccine manufacturer Moderna and we doubt its founders are complaining. Three people who own stakes in the company have debuted on this year’s Forbes list of the 400 richest people in the US.

The COVID-19 pandemic has undoubtedly caused a massive economic fallout across the globe, but as Forbes points out, for some, this has had the opposite effect as the people included on its list saw their collective wealth increase 40 percent during the last year.

Moderna is only one of three companies whose COVID-19 vaccines are authorised for use in the US, which means far less competition in the market.

How much are Moderna founders worth?

According to the Forbes list, Moderna co-founder and chairman Noubar Afeyan is now worth a whopping $3.7 billion. The pharmaceutical giant’s other co-founder and Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Robert Langer is worth a slightly less $3.5 billion.

Well, Afeyan and Langer aren’t the only ones with a stake in Moderna to make the list. According to Forbes, Tim Springer, a Harvard Medical School professor is also a newbie on the list with a net worth of $4.4 billion.

When Forbes’ calculations on the trio were done on 3 September, Springer was 176th on the list and worth $5.9 billion. However that figure dropped to $4.6 billion by Wednesday. Afeyan, who is No. 212, fell from $5 billion to $3.8 billion. While Langer, No. 222, slipped from $4.9 billion to $3.7 billion.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is at the top spot with a $201 billion net worth, followed by Tesla’s Elon Musk who’s worth $190 billion.