Shares of Novavax tumble as the vaccine maker plans to sell up to $125 million in stock, and offer $125 million of it to the stock that will be sold to the company when it goes offline. The company also offered its most recent CEO, Jim Corbin, to buy the company at $125 million.
Corbin’s stock had slipped a year earlier, when his former CEO, Robert McNamara, left the company after he won two of five contracts to help found the group’s medical research and development activities. But the company has remained steady with its stock price, thanks to a recent announcement by the president of Purdue University, Mark Taylor. The move comes as Novavax is in a tight race to win a contract with a company that has recently signed a $25 million loan deal for its research and development operations.
Corbin is already one of the most profitable medical researchers in the country. He will earn nearly $50 million this year and the company will have to pay $10 million if the company goes offline or will lose its funding.