Schering-Plough shakes up its corporate rules

The board of directors of US drugmaker Schering-Plough has announced four new measures, which it says are designed to demonstrate the firm's commitment to improving its corporate governance. The board added that the move will replace long-standing busniess practices that have been in place at the firm since before the arrival of the new management team in spring 2003.

The four steps are: the termination of the existing shareholders rights plan, which allows existing shareholders to purchase newly-issued shares during a hostile takeover; a major reduction in shareholder voting requirments on key decisions; a system of directorial elections that allows for selection by a majority of votes cast versus a plurality of shareholder votes cast; and expedition the previously approved change providing for the annual election of directors.

Fred Hassan, chairman of the firm's board, said: "we believe it is important to stay in tune with the expectations of our shareowners and our evolving environment." He added that the measures will aid the development of the company as a high-performance organization in the long term.