The former chief executive officer of Emergent BioSolutions was accused of insider trading by the New York State attorney general in connection with a contract the company had to manufacture a Covid-19 vaccine for AstraZeneca.
Robert Kramer allegedly sold more than $10 million worth of Emergent stock after becoming aware of contamination problems that made millions of doses of the vaccines unusable, but before the information was disclosed publicly, according to a lawsuit filed in New York Superior Court.
The episode began in mid-2020, when Emergent won two contracts worth $261 million to make vaccines for AstraZeneca. The arrangement stemmed from Operation Warp Speed, a U.S. government program that was designed to quickly produce vaccines and other counter-measures during the pandemic. Emergent also had contracts to make vaccines for Johnson & Johnson.Continue to STAT+ to read the full story…