March 23, 2015
By Alex Keown, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
TARRYTOWN, N.Y. -- In a move aimed at simplifying executive compensation packets, Regeneron Biopharmaceuticals is cutting perks and expenses for Chief Executive Officer Leonard Schleifer and Chief Scientific Officer George Yancopoulos, Bloomberg Business reported Monday.
According to the company’s annual proxy filing statement, the eliminated perks include automobile allowances and annual credit card membership fees. Eliminated perks include $21,236 for a car allowance and related expenses, $1,655 for life insurance premiums, $21,296 for long-term disability insurance premiums, $15,133 for medical malpractice insurance premiums, $10,400 for 401(k) Savings Plan matching contributions in respect of 2014 paid in February 2015, $9,710 for tax and financial planning advisory services and $8,799 for tax gross-ups related to tax and financial planning advisory services. For Schleifer that also includes elimination of annual dues for his golf club, which the filing shows has an annual cost of $18,500.
The benefits “were no longer consistent with our overall compensation program,” Regeneron said in the filing. In 2014 Schleifer received total compensation of $41,965, 424, which was an increase of more than $5 million from 2013. Yancopoulos took home total compensation of $35,506,811 in 2014, up more than $4 million from 2013.
The perk eliminations are not part of a company plan to shore up its finances. The Wall Street Journal reported demand for Regeneron’s vision-loss drug Eylea helped spur global sales to rise to $2.82 billion in 2014, up from $2.1 billion in 2013. Additionally shares in the company have jumped 46.3 percent to $481.06, the Journal reported. This morning Chadran Capital issued a report on Regeneron stock, speculating it could hit $560 per share. Regeneron Pharmaceuticals has a 52-week low of $269.50 and a 52-week high of $495.50.
Not only is the company’s vision-loss drug doing well, Regeneron and partner Sanofi anticipate an anti-cholesterol drug will be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) this summer, ahead of a similar medication being pushed to market by rival drugmaker Amgen , the Journal said. The cholesterol drug Praluent is expected to generate annual sales in 2019 of $4.4 billion -- twice that seen for Amgen‘s rival Repatha, Reuters reported. Both drugs are aimed at reducing high-cholesterol by targeting a protein known as PCSK9.
Earlier this month Regeneron’s Dupilumab, which is used to treat moderate to severe atopic dermatitis, met its safety endpoints in clinical trials, the company announced.
Schleifer founded Regeneron in 1988 and the company went public on the NASDAQ exchange in 1991.
