Fighting back against a shareholder campaign that looks to remove the company’s CEO, Enzon Pharmaceuticals has filed a legal complaint against dissident shareholder group DellaCamera. DellaCamera, which has recently attempted to oust Enzon CEO and president Jeffrey Buchalter under accusations that the executive has failed to advance shareholder value, decried the complaint.
Said Richard Mansouri, portfolio manager and head of research at DellaCamera: “Stockholders of Enzon are the Company’s true owners and we think it is unconscionable that the Board of Directors would sanction the initiation of costly litigation and waste stockholder funds in an effort to impede the rights granted to stockholders under Delaware law.”
Continued Mansouri, “CEO and President Jeffrey Buchalter has presided over numerous failed initiatives in his nearly four and one-half year tenure with Enzon, all while being compensated to an excessive degree. We believe there is an immediate need for change and we are committed to aggressively pursuing stockholders’ rights to bring tangible change to Enzon.”
Enzon shares are down 35 percent in the last year, and down 56 percent since Buchalter joined Enzon in 2004. DellaCamera cites a poor approach to research and development as motivation for poor performance, including significant sums of money spent on high-risk projects “much better suited for a larger pharmaceutical company.”
The pharmaceutical company’s board of directors has defended their CEO, saying, “Jeff’s experience in both clinical and commercial product development makes him uniquely qualified to lead Enzon…We urge shareholders to remain supportive and allow value to be created through the maturation of the pipeline and continued solid performance of the business.”