[PJDK]

Am I missing something as to why anyone finds this outrageous?

My understanding of the "wrongness" of insider trading is using privileged information to make profit and thus "stealing" from other investors - at least that's what I've picked up from Matt Levine.

In this case he's trading on very public information. Anyone who has held Pfizer stock for a while must have at least considered if this news was the moment to cash some of it in.

When he made the decision to sell he'd have known the trial results would have been coming in, but couldn't have known what they'd be. If they'd just come back with a "no go" the stock would have tanked. If anything it seems like an unfair disadvantage, every other long term investor in Pfizer can decide on the day of the announcement what to do, the CEO has to bet months in advance.

[Traster]

It's quite simple, these trial results don't just get automatically published. He knows he has a sale date coming up, if the results are good, he times the announcement just before his sale - causing a pop to his stock (that likely will mean revert eventually) causing the peak share price to occur around the time he sells. If the results are bad he delays the announcement to the day after his sale, making sure he secures a good price before the inevitable drop. The CEO of Pfizer shouldn't be timing market moving evens based on his personal stock trading.

[Leherenn]

I don't know if it is outrageous, but I can see why it might sound shifty. He probably didn't know the results when he made the decision to make the trade, but he might have decided the date of the announcement based on his trade date.

The question here is: is "Let's make the announcement on Wednesday. Wait, I have a trade scheduled on Tuesday, so let's move it to Tuesday because I expect an overreaction from the market." illegal or unethical? Or maybe he had no influence on the date and got lucky.

[caymanjim]

It's highly unusual to announce such early results of a trial. I don't know if it's illegal, but it sure smells funny.

[refurb]

This interim analysis was made in agreement with the FDA. Interim analyses are released all the time.