This year alone, a staggering 493 new billionaires were added to the list of billionaires, fueled by a soaring stock market and the modern economic situation. With that in mind, we take a look at a list of 40 billionaires who got filthy rich from COVID.
Markets plummeted and businesses across the globe went into recession promptly after the World Health Organization proclaimed Covid-19 a global pandemic on March 11, 2020. Scores of billionaires dropped off Forbes’ World’s Billionaires list at the very same moment, offering a picture of the pandemic’s influence on the world’s richest individuals.
A year ahead, things have changed dramatically: this year, a staggering 493 new billionaires were added to the list, fueled by a soaring stock market and enormous economic stimulus. At least 40 newcomers were amongst the entrants, with their fortunes derived from enterprises opposing Covid-19.
Because of the vaccinations they helped develop, individuals, like Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel and BioNTech cofounder Uğur Şahin, have now become household figures. Others became wealthy by creating everything including personalized protective gear and diagnostic tests to antibody treatments and software that helps authorities plan vaccination initiatives, all of which will be critical in restoring economies and resuming regular life.
Li Jianquan, the president of Chinese medical equipment firm Winner Medical, is the wealthiest of the newest billionaires. His company increased manufacture of masks and medical overalls to provide to frontline workers throughout the world. Jianquan, 64, became a billionaire multiple times over when Winner Medical went public on the Shenzhen stock exchange in September 2020, thanks to his 68 percent interest in the business, which is worth $6.8 billion.
Some vaccine businesses seem to be so profitable that they have produced many billionaires in the previous year, particularly four billionaires each from Moderna and Tianjin-based CanSino Biologics, which had its one-shot vaccination licensed by Chinese regulators in February. Manufacturers that mass manufacture vaccines and contract research firms that assist companies operate clinical trials have both garnered the benefits, resulting in new accumulated wealth for people like Juan López-Belmonte López of Spanish pharmaceutical firm Rovi and Karin Sartorius-Herbst and Ulrike Baro of German biopharma firm Sartorius AG.
Here are all the net worths of the 40 entrants with connections to enterprises fighting the Covid-19 pandemic as of March 5, 2021.
Li Jianquan & family
NET WORTH: $6.8 BILLION
SOURCE OF WEALTH: CONSUMER PRODUCTS
CITIZENSHIP: HONG KONG
Winner Medical, owned by Jianquan, produced billions of masks and millions of protective overalls and gowns for healthcare personnel battling the pandemic.
NET WORTH: $4.3 BILLION
SOURCE OF WEALTH: MODERNA
CITIZENSHIP: FRANCE
Bancel is the CEO of Moderna, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company that received FDA approval for its Covid-19 vaccine on December 18, 2020.
Liu Fangyi
NET WORTH: $4.2 BILLION
SOURCE OF WEALTH: MEDICAL EQUIPMENT
CITIZENSHIP: CHINA
Intco Medical, a maker of personalized protective devices such as gloves, face masks, isolation gowns, and hand sanitizer, is founded and led by Liu Fangyi.
Uğur Şahin
NET WORTH: $4 BILLION
SOURCE OF WEALTH: BIONTECH
CITIZENSHIP: GERMANY
Şahin founded BioNTech together with his wife and chief medical officer, Özlem Türeci, as CEO and cofounder. The FDA declared on December 11, 2020 that BioNTech collaborated with Pfizer to develop the first vaccination approved by authorities in the United States.
Yuan Liping
NET WORTH: $3.6 BILLION
SOURCE OF WEALTH: PHARMACEUTICALS
CITIZENSHIP: CANADA
Upon divorcing the firm’s chairman Du Weimin in 2020, Yuan Liping got a 24 percent interest in vaccine maker Shenzhen Kangtai Biological Products. In August, the business announced an agreement with AstraZeneca, a British pharmaceutical giant, to produce at least 100 million dosages of its Covid-19 vaccine.
Hu Kun
NET WORTH: $2.5 BILLION
SOURCE OF WEALTH: MEDICAL EQUIPMENT
CITIZENSHIP: CHINA
Hu Kun is the chairman of Contec Medical Systems, a Shenzhen-listed company that develops a variety of medical devices such as pulse oximeters and pulmonary devices for checking lung problems.
NET WORTH: $2.4 BILLION
SOURCE OF WEALTH: HEALTH INFORMATION
CITIZENSHIP: CHINA
Chen Xiao Ying is a stakeholder in Alibaba’s online healthcare subsidiary, Alibaba Health Information Technology, which in September announced a partnership with Chinese vaccine company Sinovac to establish a digital platform for the Covid-19 vaccination distribution.
Dai Lizhong
NET WORTH: $2.4 BILLION
SOURCE OF WEALTH: MEDICAL TESTING
CITIZENSHIP: CHINA
Dai Lizhong is the chairman of Sansure Biotech, a diagnostics company that produces Covid-19 testing and had its diagnostic kits approved by the FDA in May 2020.
NET WORTH: $2.4 BILLION
SOURCE OF WEALTH: BIOPHARMACEUTICALS
CITIZENSHIP: GERMANY
Ulrike Baro
NET WORTH: $1.5 BILLION
SOURCE OF WEALTH: BIOPHARMACEUTICALS
CITIZENSHIP: GERMANY
Karin Sartorius-Herbst and her sister Ulrike Baro are shareholders in Sartorius AG, a German biopharmaceutical company established in 1870 by their great-grandfather Florenz Sartorius. Sartorius supplies lab materials for Covid-19 testing and works with vaccine developers during the development cycle.
Timothy Springer
NET WORTH: $2.2 BILLION
SOURCE OF WEALTH: BIOTECH
CITIZENSHIP: UNITED STATES
Springer is a Harvard Medical School immunologist and professor of biological chemistry and molecular pharmacology; he had been an early shareholder in Moderna in 2010 and has a 3.5 percent share.
Gong Yingying
NET WORTH: $2.1 BILLION
SOURCE OF WEALTH: HEALTH IT
CITIZENSHIP: CHINA
Gong Yingying is the creator and chairperson of Yidu Tech, a Chinese healthcare tech startup that employed AI and big data to assist Wuhan in doing contact tracing and coordinating its emergency response.
NET WORTH: $2.1 BILLION
SOURCE OF WEALTH: MEDICAL DEVICES
CITIZENSHIP: CHINA
Rao Wei & family
NET WORTH: $1.2 BILLION
SOURCE OF WEALTH: PHARMACEUTICALS
CITIZENSHIP: CHINA
Shenzhen New Industries Biological Engineering, who develops a range of Covid-19 diagnostic tests, is run by Rao Wei and Weng Xianding, who are chairman and primary stakeholder, respectively.
Sergio Stevanato
NET WORTH: $1.9 BILLION
SOURCE OF WEALTH: MEDICAL PACKAGING
CITIZENSHIP: ITALY
Stevanato is the largest shareholder and chairman emeritus of the Stevanato Group, a pharmaceutical packaging company that supplies glass vials for many Covid-19 vaccinations as well as diagnostic test plastic parts.
NET WORTH: $1.9 BILLION
SOURCE OF WEALTH: BIOTECH
CITIZENSHIP: UNITED STATES
Moderna’s chairman and cofounder, Afeyan is also the founder and CEO of Flagship Pioneering, a Massachusetts-based life sciences venture capital business through which he holds shares in a dozen publicly traded biotech firms.
Carl Hansen
NET WORTH: $1.8 BILLION
SOURCE OF WEALTH: BIOTECH
CITIZENSHIP: CANADA
Hansen is a former college professor at the University of British Columbia and the founder and CEO of AbCellera, a Canadian biotech firm that collaborated with Eli Lilly on an enticing antibody therapies for Covid-19 that was approved by the FDA in November.
Juan López-Belmonte López & family
NET WORTH: $1.8 BILLION
SOURCE OF WEALTH: PHARMACEUTICALS
CITIZENSHIP: SPAIN
López-Belmonte López is the Chairman of Rovi, a Spanish pharmaceutical business that signed a deal with Moderna in July to fill and package hundreds of millions of vials of its Covid-19 vaccine at Rovi’s facility in Madrid.
John Oyler
NET WORTH: $1.8 BILLION
SOURCE OF WEALTH: BIOTECH
CITIZENSHIP: UNITED STATES
Oyler is the CEO and cofounder of Beijing-based pharmaceuticals BeiGene, which in August struck a deal with biotech firm Singlomics Pharmaceuticals to develop, manufacture, and distribute Singlomics’ Covid-19 antibody therapy.
Robert Langer
NET WORTH: $1.6 BILLION
SOURCE OF WEALTH: BIOTECH
CITIZENSHIP: UNITED STATES
Langer is a chemical engineer and professor at MIT, where he directs the Langer Lab; he holds a 3% share in Moderna, that he helped found in 2010.
NET WORTH: $1.5 BILLION
SOURCE OF WEALTH: PHARMACEUTICALS
CITIZENSHIP: CHINA
Ren Jinsheng is the chairman and founder of the pharmaceuticals company Simcere Pharmaceutical Group, which has boosted manufacturing of the antiviral medications arbidol and zanamivir in reaction to growing demands in the hopes of treating Covid-19.
Arvind Lal
NET WORTH: $1.5 BILLION
SOURCE OF WEALTH: MEDICAL DIAGNOSTICS
CITIZENSHIP: INDIA
Lal is the executive chairman of Dr. Lal PathLabs, an Indian diagnostics company that delivers Covid-19 testing at its clinics and pickup stations across the country.
Prathap Reddy
NET WORTH: $1.5 BILLION
SOURCE OF WEALTH: HEALTHCARE
CITIZENSHIP: INDIA
Prathap Reddy is the founder and chairman of the Apollo Hospitals Group in India, which in October opened upwards of a dozen post-Covid rehabilitation centers for people who suffer from the disease’s lengthy consequences.
August Troendle
NET WORTH: $1.5 BILLION
SOURCE OF WEALTH: PHARMACEUTICAL SERVICES
CITIZENSHIP: UNITED STATES
Troendle is the CEO and creator of Medpace, a Cincinnati-based contract research organization that assists pharmaceutical companies with clinical studies for Covid-19 medications as well as providing testing services at its laboratories.
Liang Yaoming
NET WORTH: $1.4 BILLION
SOURCE OF WEALTH: DIAGNOSTICS
CITIZENSHIP: CHINA
Guangzhou Kingmed Diagnostics Group, which performed tests for Covid-19 at its locations around China, is chaired by Liang Yaoming.
Itaru Tanimura
NET WORTH: $1.4 BILLION
SOURCE OF WEALTH: HEALTHCARE
CITIZENSHIP: JAPAN
Tanimura is the founder of M3, a Tokyo-based digital medical services company that uses AI-powered image processing software to detect Covid-19 by gazing at medical photos. M3 also conducted clinical trials for Moderna’s vaccine at its Raleigh, North Carolina location.
Keith Dunleavy & family
NET WORTH: $1.4 BILLION
SOURCE OF WEALTH: HEALTH IT
CITIZENSHIP: UNITED STATES
Dunleavy is the creator of Inovalon, a cloud-based healthcare data analytics company that is collaborating with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to provide Covid-19 vaccinations through its software system.
Alan Miller & family
NET WORTH: $1.3 BILLION
SOURCE OF WEALTH: HEALTHCARE SERVICES
CITIZENSHIP: UNITED STATES
Miller is the founder and executive chairman of Universal Health Services, a healthcare services firm that does Covid-19 testing and treats patients at its network of hospitals across the United States.
Cao Xiaochun
NET WORTH: $1.3 BILLION
SOURCE OF WEALTH: PHARMACEUTICALS
CITIZENSHIP: CHINA
Cao Xiaochun is the cofounder and director of Hangzhou Tigermed Consulting, a pharmaceutical contract research firm that sponsored clinical studies for CanSino’s Covid-19 vaccine.
Xiong Jun & family
NET WORTH: $1.3 BILLION
SOURCE OF WEALTH: PHARMACEUTICALS
CITIZENSHIP: CHINA
Xiong Jun is the CEO of Shanghai Junshi Biosciences, a biopharmaceutical business that collaborated with Eli Lilly to produce antibody therapies for Covid-19.
NET WORTH: $1.3 BILLION
SOURCE OF WEALTH: PHARMACEUTICALS
CITIZENSHIP: CHINA
Qiu Dongxu
NET WORTH: $1.2 BILLION
SOURCE OF WEALTH: PHARMACEUTICALS
CITIZENSHIP: CANADA
Yu Xuefeng
NET WORTH: $1.2 BILLION
SOURCE OF WEALTH: PHARMACEUTICALS
CITIZENSHIP: CANADA
Mao Huihua
NET WORTH: $1 BILLION
SOURCE OF WEALTH: PHARMACEUTICALS
CITIZENSHIP: CANADA
CanSino Biologics, established in Tianjin, gained conditional clearance for its one-shot Covid-19 vaccine from Chinese regulators in February. Its cofounders are Zhu Tao, Qiu Dongxu, Yu Xuefeng, and Mao Huihua.
Premchand Godha
NET WORTH: $1.2 BILLION
SOURCE OF WEALTH: PHARMACEUTICALS
CITIZENSHIP: INDIA
Godha is the chairman of Ipca Labs, a Mumbai-based generic drugmaker that had an FDA import ban lifted in March 2020, allowing it to sell the antimalarial medication hydroxychloroquine to the United States. Before the FDA prohibited its use in July, the medicine was hailed as a viable Covid-19 treatment.
Feng Yuxia
NET WORTH: $1.1 BILLION
SOURCE OF WEALTH: PHARMACEUTICALS
CITIZENSHIP: CHINA
Feng Yuxia is the president of JOINN Laboratories, a Beijing-based contract research business that assisted in clinical trials of prospective Covid-19 therapies in Wuhan, China, the disease’s early epicenter.
Li Wenmei & family
NET WORTH: $1.1 BILLION
SOURCE OF WEALTH: MEDICAL EQUIPMENT
CITIZENSHIP: CHINA
Li Wenmei is the originator and general manager of Guangzhou Wondfo Biotech, a diagnostic test provider that produces a number of Covid-19 assays.
M. Satyanarayana Reddy
NET WORTH: $1.1 BILLION
SOURCE OF WEALTH: PHARMACEUTICALS
CITIZENSHIP: INDIA
He is the founder and chairman of MSN Group, a drug company based in Hyderabad that began manufacturing a low-cost equivalent of the Covid-19 antiviral favipiravir in August.
Jack Schuler
NET WORTH: $1.1 BILLION
SOURCE OF WEALTH: PHARMACEUTICALS
CITIZENSHIP: UNITED STATES
Schuler is the former president of Abbott Labs and the proprietor of a 7% share in Quidel Corp., that was one of the earliest firms to get FDA clearance for its Covid-19 testing in March 2020. He’s also a shareholder in Inspirotec, a privately held company that’s developing equipment to detect the prevalence of Covid-19 in the atmosphere.
Yu De-Chao
NET WORTH: $1 BILLION
SOURCE OF WEALTH: PHARMACEUTICALS
CITIZENSHIP: UNITED STATES
Yu De-Chao is the founder and chairman of Innovent Biologics, a Chinese biopharmaceutical company working on an antibody treatment for Covid-19.