The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York brought charges against a former Pzifer statistician June 29 based on allegations that he shared news of a successful Paxlovid clinical trial with his business partner before the drug company published the information.
The former worker, Amit Dagar, and his friend and business partner, Atul Bhiwapurkar, are charged with violating antifraud laws. According to a lawsuit brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Mr. Dagar was a senior statistical program lead for the Paxlovid drug trial and, after finding out the trial met its endpoints, he and Mr. Bhiwapurkar purchased "short term, out-of-the-money Pfizer call options, including options that expired the very next day."
With the investments, Mr. Dagar earned $214,395 and Mr. Bhiwapurkar made $60,300, the lawsuit alleges.