Reference no: EM132569328

On April 16, 2020, the headline reads:

Moderna Announces Award from U.S. Government Agency BARDA for up to $483 Million to Accelerate Development of mRNA Vaccine (mRNA-1273) Against Novel Coronavirus

On July 2, 2020, the headline reads:

Trial of Moderna Covid-19 vaccine delayed, investigators say, but July start still possible

The actions by Tal Zaks of Moderna:

• Tal Zaks, Moderna's Chief Medical Officer, began the year with nearly 100,000 shares of the company.
• In late February, days before Moderna announced that its coronavirus vaccine was ready for human testing, he began dumping 10,000 shares of the company a week.
• Over the next 11 weeks, as the pandemic pushed Moderna's share price from $18 to $50, Zaks liquidated his entire position, making $3.4 million in the process.
• Once he ran out of stock, he began exercising options priced at $12.21 per share.
• Over the next two weeks, he sold more than 250,000 more Moderna shares at an average price of $67.
• Zaks profited more than $18 million from his 2020 trades. He currently holds zero shares of Moderna stock.

Question

Problem 1. If these transactions were perfectly legal, how ethical are our public capital markets? And Was Tal Zaks involved in "insider trading?