We believe that a corporate culture offering employees dynamic and stimulating working conditions with great opportunities to grow and contribute to the shared objective of creating customer satisfaction and fostering long-term customer loyalty through excellence in peptide and oligonucleotide technology, quality, value, service and customer support is key for safeguarding PolyPeptide’s long-standing success.

In order to attract, motivate and retain talented individuals who drive performance, the Remuneration and Nomination Committee gives careful consideration to PolyPeptide’s remuneration framework, which aims to be simple, clear and transparent. The Remuneration and Nomination Committee is guided by the following key principles:

• the remuneration framework should be competitive, commensurate with market conditions and drive sustainable long-term value creation
• the remuneration framework should reward individual performance and align the interests of the Board of Directors and Executive Committee with the interests of PolyPeptide and its shareholders
• the remuneration framework should be traceable
• the remuneration framework should contain a balance of both fixed and variable components to create sustainable value
• short-term variable components should be based on clear criteria and performance targets tied to PolyPeptide’s strategic objectives and values, with consideration given to qualitative factors, including the individual’s commitment to PolyPeptide’s values through demonstrated behaviors
• long-term variable components should be evaluated and only awarded on the basis of PolyPeptide’s long-term performance to promote the creation of shareholder value
• the remuneration framework should avoid creating unintended, undesirable or conflicting incentives or behaviors

As a basis for this work and to support compensation recommendations to the Board of Directors, the Remuneration and Nomination Committee reviews every two or three years (or more often as required) PolyPeptide’s compensation system against the compensation of comparable companies to ensure that PolyPeptide’s remuneration continues to be guided by its established principles and that remuneration levels remain competitive to support the retention and attraction of talent. For these purposes, the Remuneration and Nomination Committee regularly considers whether it is appropriate or necessary to engage external advisors as well as whether the identified peer groups from the most recent benchmark studies remain valid. The Remuneration and Nomination Committee further considers PolyPeptide’s overall internal compensation structure, the individual’s profile (e.g., skill set, experience, seniority), PolyPeptide’s global activities and the growing complexity and demands of its industry. Following such assessments, the Remuneration and Nomination Committee may propose to the Board of Directors compensation adjustments (e.g., increases / decreases in base salaries or changes in the structure or proportion of the compensation components) for proposal to the general meeting.

In 2024, the Remuneration and Nomination Committee reviewed the compensation of the Board of Directors against internally compiled data (i) from executive studies and reports and (ii) on the basis of the disclosures of Swiss companies of similar size and structure, (e.g., considering sector, employee base, revenue and market capitalization) as well as based on their business model and geographic presence.⁷ This updated internal review showed that PolyPeptide maintained its positioning between the tenth and twenty-fifth percentile within this Swiss peer group as in 2023 (see section 2 “Remuneration philosophy and principles” of the Remuneration Report 2023. After examining the available data, the Remuneration and Nomination Committee observed that PolyPeptide’s aggregate Board remuneration trended moderately higher. At the same time, the Remuneration and Nomination Committee remains focused on the Group’s strategic ambitions and the need to retain and attract highly qualified directors to drive PolyPeptide’s transformation and future growth. Furthermore, at least half of the Board’s remuneration is paid in shares, thus closely aligning the Board’s interest with that of the Company’s shareholders to drive PolyPeptide’s success (see also section 4.1 “Remuneration approach” of this Remuneration Report). On the basis of this assessment, the Remuneration and Nomination Committee concluded that no proposed changes to the remuneration of the Board of Directors were currently warranted.

To ensure competitiveness with the market, the compensation of the Executive Committee was also benchmarked in 2024 against internally compiled data (i) from executive studies and reports, (ii) from previously obtained European benchmark data (adjusted for inflation between 2022 and 2024)⁸ and (iii) on the basis of applicable disclosures of Swiss companies of similar size and structure, (e.g., considering sector, employee base, revenue and market capitalization) as well as based on their business model and geographic presence.⁷ Review of the data shows that PolyPeptide is generally positioned between the tenth and twenty-fifth percentile across the different peer groups with relatively higher aggregate Executive Committee compensation depending on the individual roles. The Remuneration and Nomination Committee assessed the results, while at the same time considering PolyPeptide’s ambitious growth strategy and the need to recruit and retain highly qualified executives in a competitive international labor market, and decided that currently no proposed changes to the aggregate remuneration of the Executive Committee was currently warranted.