This was a year of success for some of the world's super wealthy and many of the biggest winners were from the health care sector.
Carl Hansen
CEO of Canada biotech company AbCellera Carl Hansen stepped into the billionaire club after the company jointly developed an antibody treatment that was recently approved.
Hansen is now estimated to have a net worth of $2.9 billion.
Last week, AbCellera announced that the human antibody it developed with Eli Lilly and Co. will be tested by local institutions and the state of New Mexico in a study using high-risk COVID-19 patients.
Hansen is a former professor of physics and astronomy at the University of British Columbia. Before the pandemic he was little known outside Canada.
Yuan Liping
Yuan Liping was all over China and international news media in June following her billion-dollar divorce from Du Weimin. Du is the chairperson of Shenzhen Kangtai Biological Products Co. Ltd.
Du had to hand over more than 161 million shares (priced at a cumulative $3.2 billion) of the company to Yuan - pushing the latter's fortune to $4.1 billion. Yuan is now Canada's richest woman.
According to a filing Yuan owns the shares directly. However, the agreement states their voting rights remain with Du.
Since COVID-19 Kangtai shares more than doubled in price - especially after the company announced plans to develop a vaccine. After the divorce, Kangtai's stock fell 3.4%.
Stéphane Bancel
Before becoming CEO of Moderna in 2011 Stéphane Bancel was the CEO of French diagnostics company BioMérieux.
In March, Moderna announced work on a coronavirus vaccine. Since then, the company's stock price has risen more than 550% - driving Bancel's fortunes to $4.1 billion as of this month.
Earlier this year, Bancel owned around 9% of Moderna but, after selling stocks, he now owns around 6%. Bancel has been selling more stocks over the past few months.
Moderna's stock price has dipped after reports of the company's vaccine having side effects in people with cosmetic facial fillers. A Boston doctor reportedly had a severe allergic reaction after getting vaccinated.
Ugur Sahin
Dr. Ugur Sahin, joint founder and CEO of BioNTech, whose breakout vaccine with Pfizer was the first to be approved in the European Union has yet to be vaccinated owing to legal issues.
Before the German biotech company's vaccine was approved in the EU, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine was 95% effective in preventing coronavirus.
Fast-forward to December and BioNTech stock price has risen by up to 160% with Sahin now estimated to have a net worth of $4.2 billion. Sahin owns around 17% of the company.
