Schering-Plough announces changes to corporate governance

Schering-Plough’s board of directors has announced four actions aimed at improving corporate governance at the company.

These actions include the termination of its existing shareholders’ rights plan and a proposal to reduce supermajority shareholder voting requirements for decisions such as removing a director.

Other actions announced were a proposal to have directors elected by majority of shareholders, rather than a plurality and speeding up other previously approved changes for election.

The company commented that it appreciated the contributions from its shareholders in addition to input to CalPers, the Sheet Metal Workers National Pension Fund and others in the development of its framework of corporate governance.

Fred Hassan, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of the company, said: “We believe it is important to stay in tune with the expectations of our shareholders and our evolving environment.”

He added that as the company aims to progress into a high-performance firm, it would plan to take the measures required for robust corporate governance.

The board of directors of Schering-Plough recently declared a quarterly dividend of 5.5 cents (2.8p) for each common share, to be paid on February 27th next year to those with recorded shares as of February 2nd 2007.