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Genzyme's Termeer Sells $10M in Stock Despite Company's Woes

By Jim Edwards

Updated on: November 30, 2009 / 1:22 PM EST / MoneyWatch

No matter how badly Genzyme (GENZ) performs, CEO Henri Termeer just seems to fall ass-backwards into money. On Nov. 23 he sold $10 million in stock at $50.47 a share after exercising 200,000 options at $26.50 per share.

Termeer's windfall occurred despite the following:

Genzyme dropped a kidney drug in November that failed to perform in Phase 3 of development.
The FDA rejected Genzyme's Lumizyme drug for Pompe Disease, due to manufacturing "deficiencies" at its Allston Landing, Mass., plant.
It was the second new drug application from Genzyme that the FDA has rejected. It nixed Clolar for leukemia in September.
Genzyme's Allston, Mass., plant has been the subject of a five-week FDA inspection.
Also in November, garbage -- steel, rubber and fiber -- was found inside some of the drugs coming out the plant.
Production at the plant was halted in June due to viral contamination.
The company was warned in February that it wouldn't pass an inspection unless it cleaned up its act.

It's not the first set of options that Termeer has cashed out. In May, he took and sold 22,333 options priced at $0 -- that's zero dollars! -- netting $544,875. It comes on top of $50 million he received in total compensation over the last three years.