Moderna finance chief lasts one day in the job and gets $1 million payout

Moderna’s chief financial officer stepped down just one day after starting his new job, pocketing $US700,000 ($1 million) in severance pay. He’s the latest high-ranking executive to leave the COVID-19 vaccine maker as it faces questions about its long-term growth.

Jorge Gomez departed after his former employer, the dental-supply company Dentsply Sirona, said on Tuesday it was investigating the use of incentives to sell products to distributors, as well as other actions to achieve executive-compensation targets. Gomez, 54, had been Dentsply Sirona’s CFO for almost three years.

The sudden exit by Gomez means that Moderna’s retired finance chief, David Meline, 64, will step back into a role he only recently vacated as the company opens a new search for a successor, Moderna said in a statement on Wednesday.

Moderna has become a household name around the world due to the success of its COVID shot, but it has also faced questions about what other treatments it can bring to market to help sustain its stratospheric sales growth. The company has said it thinks messenger RNA could have applications for the prevention and treatment of many diseases, and it’s testing flu vaccines based on the technology.

Nonetheless, Moderna’s once-high-flying shares have been under pressure since late last year, with investors worried that demand for COVID shots is receding quickly while the company has few near-term prospects for another blockbuster of comparable size.

The stock closed down 6.7 per cent on Wednesday, and has lost roughly three-quarters of its value since hitting a high of $US484.47 last summer. Moderna first sold shares to the public in late 2018.

Senior shakeups

The instability at CFO is the latest in a series of high-level executive changes as Moderna transforms from a science-based startup to a biotech behemoth with billions of dollars in sales.

Other new executives include Chief Legal Officer Shannon Thyme Klinger, who joined Moderna in June after working for pharma giant Novartis; as well as Chief Medical Officer Paul Burton, who joined in July after a long career at rival COVID-shot maker Johnson & Johnson.