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Piscataway-based Enzon (Nasdaq: ENZN) on Thursday named Arthur J. Higgins, 45, as its president and chief executive officer. He replaces Peter Tombros, 58, who has served as CEO of Enzon since 1994.

Higgins joins Enzon from Abbott Laboratories where he was president of Abbott Pharmaceutical Products division.

According to an 8-K filing by Enzon with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Higgins will receive a minimum base salary of $500,000 and an annual bonus equal to between 0% and 200% of his base salary. Enzon will also grant Higgins options to purchase 800,000 shares of common stock and 25,000 shares of restricted stock. At 12:25 p.m., Enzon shares were trading $0.60 up at $70.90.

This compares with Tombros” basic pay package of $348,834 in salary and a bonus of $112,000 for the year ending June 30, 2000. He was also granted an option to buy 100,000 shares of Enzon stock for $50.63 each, which vests on June 30, 2003. With Enzon stock now trading at $70.90 a share, the options are already worth more than $2.03 million. As of June 30, 2000, Tombros had exercisable options worth $43.28 million on 1,108,000 Enzon shares.

At the time of signing his new employment contract with the company in August last year, Tombros had already expressed his desire to retire upon completion of the new agreement. The contract extended Tombros” tenure through 2003.

Commenting on Higgins” appointment, Randy Thurman, Enzon”s chairman, said: “Arthur brings a wealth of experience in pharmaceutical research and development, product marketing, organizational leadership and is truly a global executive. Enzon announced last year our intention to work with Peter Tombros on a succession strategy following Peter”s decision to step down as CEO. Arthur is uniquely qualified to lead Enzon as we seek to aggressively expand our outstanding pipeline and continue to build on our track record of creating exceptional shareholder value.”

The board plans to elect Higgins to the additional position of chairman of the board at its December meeting.

Enzon is a biopharmaceutical company developing advanced therapeutics for life-threatening diseases through the application of its proprietary drug delivery and targeting technologies, PEG Modification, Pro Drug/Transport technology and Single-Chain Antigen-Binding protein technology. Three products are currently marketed which utilize Enzon”s technology: PEG-Intron marketed by Schering-Plough for hepatitis C; Oncaspar for acute lymphoblastic leukemia; and Adagen a treatment for a form of severe combined immunodeficiency disease, commonly known as the “bubble boy disease.” In addition to three approved products, Enzon has several products in various stages of clinical development by itself and with partners, including additional indications for PEG-Intron with Schering-Plough. PEG-Intron is in Phase III clinical trials conducted by Schering-Plough for the treatment of malignant melanoma and chronic myelogenous leukemia.

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