COVID-19 vaccination gives rise to nine new billionaires

Nine more people made a fortune on revenues of pharmaceutical companies from the vaccines against coronavirus, according to The People's Vaccine Alliance, which incorporates various human rights, humanitarian and medical organizations, Report informs, citing RIA Novosti.

The new list includes four representatives of the American company Moderna: general director Stephane Bancel, co-founder Noubar Afeyan and investors Timothy Springer and Robert Langer.

BioNTech CEO Uğur Şahin, general director of the Spanish pharmaceutical company Rovi Juan Lopez-Belmonte and three co-founders of the Chinese CanSino Biologics, are also among the new billionaires, whose total fortune makes $19.3 billion.

On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared an outbreak of the new coronavirus infection a pandemic. According to recent estimates, the global coronavirus tally has topped 165 million, while over 3.4 million patients have succumbed to the deadly pathogen.