Regeneron’s Schleifer, Yancopoulos share Entrepreneur of Year award

Two founding physicians and scientists leading Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc., Leonard Schleifer and George Yancopoulos, have been named the Ernst & Young Entrepreneurs of the Year 2016 National Award Winners in life sciences, the Westchester-based biotechnology company and state”™s largest biotech employer announced on Monday.

Schleifer, who is founder, president and CEO of Regeneron,  and Yancopoulos, the publicly traded company”™s founding scientist and chief scientific officer and president of Regeneron Laboratories, were chosen by a panel of independent judges from more than 250 regional award recipients. The EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award recognizes leaders and visionaries who demonstrate innovation, financial success and personal commitment as they create and build world-class businesses.

“Even now, as the company has grown to over 5,000 employees, Len and George continue to lead with a fierce entrepreneurial spirit and a willingness to do things differently,” said P. Roy Vagelos, chairman of the Regeneron board of directors. “This spirit has enabled the Regeneron team to bring important medicines to people in need and to advance a promising pipeline of therapies for serious diseases.”

Headquartered at The Landmark at Eastview life sciences campus in the towns of Greenburgh and Mount Pleasant, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals in October was named the world’s number one biopharmaceutical employer by Science magazine in its annual Top Employers Survey. Regeneron has ranked first in the survey in four of the past six years and was ranked second in 2015 and 2011.

Regeneron officials in September announced the company will venture into real estate development with plans to build a roughly 1 million-square-foot research and development campus on a portion of an undeveloped 100-acre parcel adjoining the Landmark at Eastview campus in Greenburgh.