The CEOs of more than 300 publicly traded health care companies collectively raked in $4 billion last year as Americans struggled under high inflation, according to an analysis by Stat News.

Topping the income chart is the CEO of Moderna, the company that developed one of the leading COVID-19 vaccines in the world—with significant support from US taxpayers and federal scientists.

Moderna's Stéphane Bancel made $398 million in 2022, which equaled the total pay for the next six highest-paid CEOs in the biotech and pharma sector, according to Stat's analysis. It also put Bancel near the top of the income inequality chart, showing Bancel's compensation was 2,435 times more than the median salary of Moderna employees last year.

Bancel's haul was largely from pre-planned stock sales, and he has said that he will donate much of it to charity. Still, the pandemic made Bancel a billionaire; his net worth is estimated to be over $4 billion, and Moderna made roughly $36 billion in worldwide sales from the vaccine, its only product.

Moderna and Bancel's enormous gains have drawn much ire, particularly in light of the fact that Moderna plans to quadruple the US list price of its vaccine this year as it moves from federal distribution to the commercial market—from around $26 a dose to between $110 and $130. Lawmakers, especially Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), have lambasted Bancel and the company for the move, calling it an example of the "unprecedented level of corporate greed" in the pharmaceutical industry. In a congressional hearing in March, Sanders highlighted that Moderna created its vaccine in partnership with the National Institutes of Health and received $1.7 billion in federal grant money for clinical development.

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While Bancel's windfall of income last year may be the most high-profile and controversial, he's far from alone in taking in large sums. The second-highest earner overall was the CEO of a much lower-profile company named Veeva Systems, a technology company that develops cloud-based software for the life-science industry. Though Veeva itself generated just around $2 billion in its last fiscal year, CEO Peter Gassner took home $308 million, nearly all of which was from long-held stock that vested and was exercised, Stat notes.

Third down the list of highest incomes was that of the CEO for Molina Healthcare, a health insurance company that gets more than 80 percent of its revenue from state Medicaid programs, Stat reported. Its CEO, Joseph Zubretsky, got a pay package of $181 million, putting him near the top of the income inequality list as well, with an income 2,397 times more than the median salary of Molina employees.

Overall, as many Americans struggled to make ends meet amid high inflation, health care CEOs made an average of $13 million, with a median of around $4.3 million. The majority of CEOs made at least 64 times more than the average employee. The median CEO bonus was around $700,000, nearly 10 times the median US household income.

But, even CEOs weren't immune to the economic turbulence. Their figures are down from 2021, in which the average income was $15.3 million with a median of $7 million, and the median bonus was more than $900,000.