This Man Should Step Down Immediately

[youngmafbog]

Talk about a conflict of interest, no wonder all the doom mongering.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/12754482/sir-patrick-shares-vaccine-gsk/

[Mozz71]

Jesus wept. Is there no end to the self serving habits of those in positions of power? He needs to either step down or sell his shares immediately.

[ToraToraTora]

yes I think he should definitely recuse himself here, the very definition of insider trading!

[Theland]

As bad as the Biden family :-(

[Mozz71]

Who are almost as bad as the Trumps.

[douglas9401]

It can be addressed in flowery language and assurances from other fly-by-nights in and out of government but when it all shakes out he's just a spiv.

In my opinion.

[Theland]

So should this one.

https://youtu.be/cQx9D3NUtfo

[Peter Pedant]

any stock analysts here

sir podraic has an option hasnt he? - an option to by deferred shares ( at a good discount)
so do you have to declare an option?

the above pt isnt really AB stuff ....

[Ken4155]

Does sort of dilute the ceaseless message that Boris's decision making is based on the advice of the scientists when one of those scientists has a vested interest in the those very decisions.

[Peter Pedant]

vuh uvva fing - - is - -
GSK - are doing the vaccine cost neutrally innit?
yeah yeah I know ....

[woofgang]

its an option....he doesn't own any shares. The option dates from a period of employment many years before covid was a twinkle in a bat's eye.

[Hopkirk]

True. He can't sell shares he doesn't yet own.

If his experience makes him the best person for the job, then no way should he be forced out.

[Ken4155]

By 'option', do you mean that when these 'deferred' shares mature in 2021, he will have the option whether to accept them (and do with them as he so wishes) or not?

[gulliver1]

Is this man another adviser to The Con Party alongside Cummings.

[woofgang]

Ken here's how it works. When you are given the option, the share purchase price is set, usually at the level when you get the option. The option matures and you are then told how much it will cost you to buy the shares. You usually have three choices, you can buy the shares at the set price, you can decline to buy, you can do a buy and immediately sell deal where the shares you had the option on are sold and you receive the difference between the option price and the price the shares sold for.

personally I think it would have been criminally stupid for the gov.t to rule out GSK on the basis that PV has got a share option from his time at work there and unreasonable to expect him to surrender an option that he earned long before the current pandemic.

[jno]

Boris seems to be okay with conflicts of interest (Jennifer Arcuri). And the links between top Tories and companies getting Covid contracts without them being put out to tender is most impressive. It doesn't seem to be an issue these days, and options are, I think, the least conflicty of all.

[douglas9401]

He might have mentioned it in passing though but full disclosure's only for unwashed lefties innit.

These are gentlemen and above reproach.

[Peter Pedant]

// True. He can't sell shares he doesn't yet own.//
erm that is why I wondered if this were suitable for the 14 y o of AB
you do sell shares you dont own in a process called shorting
which in my hands is a process for losing loolah
but good 'shorters' make a bomb

( and if they are not good they turn into AB posters)

[woofgang]

PP its done with oil as well....well maybe not right now.... its called spinning. One time my DH was offered a "you name it" bribe if he would tell an acquaintance who actually owned a parcel of crude....He knew because he was fairly senior in the upstream end of the UK branch of an oil national. Needless to say the acquaintance became an ex acquaintance and we didn't make our fortunes. Around 10 years later colleagues of his thought to make their fortunes by awarding drydock contracts in exchange for some serious bungs and ended up in jail. Vengeance is mine saith the company, I will repay.

[meglet]

From Natasha Loder, Health Policy Editor at the Economist

GSK is not actually making this vaccine. It is Sanofi's vacccine. GSK is sharing its technology to make vaccines better (called an adjuvant) to any firm that wants them. (And quite a lot do.)

Earlier this year, CEO Emma Walmsley said they wanted to help by sharing their adjuvant, and it wasn't a commercial venture. Because, pandemic.

It was popular and is now used by covid vaccine makers such as @sanofi. Vir. @Innovax. Clover. Medicago Inc. Remarkable, actually.

So GSK are making a billion doses of adjuvant. They started, at risk, in May.

In the event GSK's tie-ups make money, firm says, "it will be invested in support of coronavirus related research and long-term pandemic preparedness, either through GSK’s internal investments, or with external partners."

Why? Because, pandemic.

Even if Vallance had some control over the UK's vaccine buying (and even the Telegraph admits in almost last paragraph that ministers make the decision)... and even if Sanofi does make a profit.... and even some of this goes to GSK, ......shareholders are not going to benefit.

But why spoil a juicy story with a few boring facts?

[douglas9401]

'chortle'