Leonard Steven Schleifer

Leonard S. Schleifer is the co-founder and chief executive of the biotechnology company Regeneron Pharmaceuticals.

He graduated from Cornell University with a B.S. degree and from the University of Virginia with an MD-PhD. He then worked at New York Hospital where he trained to become a neurologist and also served as a junior faculty member.

Seeking to enter the biotechnology business, he raised $1 million in venture capital and recruited a partner -- scientist George Yancopoulos, 28. Together, they founded Regeneron Pharmaceuticals in 1988. After the failure of their first two drugs -- one for Lou Gehrig’s disease and another to treat obesity -- they invited former Merck CEO Roy Vagelos to head the company. He implemented two strategic changes: investing only in drugs for disorders whose blology is fully understood and determining by human testing that what works in the laboratory will also work in the real world.

In 2011, Regeneron successfully introduced Eylea, a drug for age-related macular degeneration. Sales of the drug made Scheifer a billionaire. In May 2015, he ranked 15th in a list of "200 highest-paid CEOs of large publicly traded companies." 

On July 7, 2020, Regeneron announced that it was awarded a $450 million federal contract to manufacture and supply REGN-COV2 -- a double antibody cocktail for the prevention of COVID-19 infection. This agreement supports continued manufacturing so that the product could be made available immediately in the U.S. if clinical trials are successful and the FDA grants Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) or product approval.