Item 5.02 Departure of Directors or Certain Officers; Election of Directors; Appointment of Certain Officers; Compensatory Arrangements of Certain Officers.
Material Amendment to Employment Agreement
On March 19, 2021, Passage Bio, Inc. (the “Company”) entered into an amendment to the Company’s employment agreement with Dr. Gary Romano, the Company’s Chief Medical Officer. Pursuant to the amendment, if Dr. Romano does not resign and remains an employee of the Company until August 15, 2021: (a) Dr. Romano will receive accelerated vesting of stock options that are scheduled to vest in the twelve month period after his termination date; (b) Dr. Romano’s post-termination exercise period for vested stock options as of August 15, 2021 will be extended to twelve months after termination of employment; (c) upon termination of employment, Dr. Romano will receive a lump sum payment equal to twelve months of his annual salary, plus a lump sum equal to twelve months of the monthly COBRA premium he would be required to pay to continue in the group health plan, payable within thirty days after the termination date; (d) the terms of Dr. Romano’s non-competition agreement will be revised; and (e), Dr. Romano will be eligible to receive all benefits set forth in Section 5.5 of his employment agreement in addition to the benefits described above.
Additionally, pursuant to the amendment, the Company may terminate Dr. Romano’s employment without cause, or Dr. Romano may resign for certain limited reasons, prior to August 15, 2021, in which case he will receive the benefits described above. If the Company terminates Dr. Romano’s employment for cause at any time per the terms of his employment agreement, he will not receive the benefits described above. If Dr. Romano resigns for any other reason prior to August 15, 2021, he will not be entitled to the benefits described above.
The foregoing description of the amendment to Dr. Romano’s employment agreement is not complete and is qualified in its entirety by reference to the full text of such amendment, a copy of which will be filed as an exhibit to our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the three months ended March 31, 2021.
Item 8.01 Other Events.
The board of directors of the Company has appointed Dr. Eliseo Oreste Salinas as Chief Research and Development Officer, effective March 22, 2021.