Proxy firm backs two of Icahn's nominees for election to Biogen board

By Lisa Kerner

Charlotte, N.C., May 28 - RiskMetrics Group/ISS recommended that Biogen Idec Inc. shareholders vote for two of Carl C. Icahn's nominees, Dr. Alexander J. Denner and Dr. Richard C. Mulligan, at the company's annual meeting on June 3.

According to Icahn, RiskMetrics stated "We conclude that the presence of dissident nominees Denner and Mulligan on the Biogen board would likely prove beneficial to long-term shareholder value."

Icahn urged Biogen shareholders to vote the gold proxy card for Denner, Mulligan, Dr. David Sidransky and Dr. Thomas F. Deuel.

As previously reported, Proxy Governance Inc. and Glass, Lewis & Co. both recommended that Biogen stockholders vote the white proxy card for all of the company's nominees at its annual meeting.

Denner is managing director of entities affiliated with Icahn, including Icahn Partners.

Mulligan is the Mallinckrodt Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School and director of the Harvard Gene Therapy Initiative.

Deuel is a professor emeritus at Harvard Medical School and was the director of the division of molecular oncology at the Scripps Research Institute.

Sidransky is the director of the head and neck cancer research division at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Biogen is a Cambridge, Mass., pharmaceutical company.

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