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| Dr. George Yancopoulos |
Regeneron R&D chief George Yancopoulos suffered a major drop in compensation last year--but he's still likely to retain his title as the highest paid research chief in the global industry.
Back in 2012 Yancopoulos scored a record-setting $81 million pay package, including a big chunk of company stock. Last year, according to the company's proxy, Yancopoulos earned a total of $31 million in compensation--including $28 million in options ($REGN), a $1.76 million bonus, $879,800 in base salary and a set of perks that come to $281,455. Much of his "perk" money related to paperwork required to handle the mother lode of income that now comes with his job.
That's still likely to easily beat out any of his peers. Last year Novartis' Mark Fishman earned $8.8 million for the number two slot in the top 10. Most earn far less than that.
Regeneron has been making huge strides in recent years, earning three approvals from the FDA and watching Eylea rack up growing numbers. The longtime R&D chief has been credited with efficiently slicing the time it takes to develop a drug and has held Sanofi close in a partnership for a PCSK9 drug that is one of the most closely watched in the industry.
CEO Leonard Schleifer, who earned $36 million in 2013 and only $30 million the year before, has never begrudged the money spent to retain Yancopoulos.
"I wanted to make sure that he had absolutely no reason to go someplace else or go out on his own, because we can pay him hundreds of millions of dollars or we can buy his drugs for billions of dollars when he's at another company," Schleifer told FierceBiotech last year. "So, it's a lot cheaper this way."
Of course, Schleifer hasn't done badly over the 25 years he's been building Regeneron from the ground up. He recently joined the billion-dollar biotech club, with $600 million in shares and another $300 million worth of options, according to Forbes.