Boston Business Journal -- Idenix Pharmaceuticals paid former CEO Jean-Pierre Sommadossi, who left the biotechnology company in October, $5 million in 2010, in a combination of salary, stock and other compensation.
Sommadossi’s salary in 2010 was $483,333, down significantly from his 2009 salary of $580,000, regulatory documents for the Cambridge, Mass.-based biotechnology company show.
By comparison, new CEO Ronald Renaud received total compensation of $1.4 million in 2010, with a salary of $367,600. His salary will rise slightly to 385,000 in 2011. Renaud received stock valued by the company at $963,060, and a cash incentive payment of $66,850.
Renaud and other top executives of the company received just 35 percent of their cash incentives for 2011, due in large part to the fact that two of Idenix’s drugs were put on a so-called “clinical hold” by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in September. Trials underway were halted, after a drug-drug interaction between the two was observed.
The board of directors explained in regulatory documents that this had a number of negative impacts on the business, including a failure to enter into a partnership for one of the potential drugs, to treat hepatitis C.
