"Vertex pays CEO $19.3m in 1st year; Money-losing biotech has no drugs on market" by Todd Wallack, Globe Staff | April 16, 2010
Another rookie Bay State chief executive is starting off with a massive pay package.
Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. disclosed late yesterday that it gave new CEO Matthew W. Emmens $19.3 million in compensation last year....
Vertex’s package is particularly notable because the Cambridge biotechnology firm has no drugs on the market and has lost money every year since it was founded in 1989, including $642 million last year.
Then HOW and WHY is it STILL in "BUSINESS?"
Yet the company has a stock market value of close to $8 billion — making it one of the state’s largest drug companies — largely based on the hope that its experimental hepatitis C treatment, telaprevir, will become an instant blockbuster when it hits the market in 2011....
Then the STOCK MARKET is SHIT!!!
Vertex said Emmens, who succeeded company founder Joshua Boger in May, received $1 million in salary, $2.8 million in cash incentives, and more than $15 million in restricted stock and options awards....
Boger, who remained on Vertex’s board after he stepped down as CEO last year, received $10.1 million in total compensation, 61 percent more than he made in 2008....
And they have LOST MONEY EVERY YEAR for TWENTY YEARS?!!!
Related: VenCap Vroom-Vroom
That is where the money came from, folks -- and Vertex pissed it all away.
Vertex said it also awarded substantial option packages last year to recruit or retain three other corporate officers.
Chief commercial officer Nancy Wysenski, who joined the company in December, received $10.2 million in total compensation.... and chief financial officer Ian F. Smith received $9.1 million, quadruple his pay in 2008, while chief scientific officer Peter Mueller was paid $9.3 million, more than triple his 2008 compensation.
Looks like GOOD TIMES down at Vertex, 'eh?
--more--"
Also see: Vertex's Vortex
So that is where all the money went.
