What the Top 15 Biopharma CEOs Are Making

Following is a list of 15 current or former biopharma CEOs who led their companies for at least part of 2012, ranked by their “total compensation” last year. Total compensation goes beyond salary, to include bonuses, stock awards, stock option awards, nonequity incentive plan compensation, and all other sources of compensation. For each CEO ranked, the list offers 2012 and 2011 compensation, the percentage change between the amounts, and their position, if ranked, on last year’s What the Top 10 Biopharma CEOs Are Making list, published by GEN on July 24, 2012.

This year’s list saw two key changes: One is that this year’s rankings are of individuals rather than companies, since two of last year’s Top 10 companies had more than one CEO during 2012. And the List has expanded to a Top 15, to ensure inclusion of all four CEOs with compensation in the $13.5 million range, rather than just one, and to better illustrate the spread beyond U.S. big pharma of compensation packages at or close to the eight-figure range.

As a result, this year the CEOs from Roche and Sanofi joined Novartis in raising the presence of non-U.S. companies on the list. The other CEOs listed head U.S.-based companies, which traditionally have paid their top executives much more than their counterparts at European and Japanese biopharmas, most of whom were paid in the seven-figure range. The highest compensation was paid this year not only by U.S.-based pharma giants, but by fast-growing U.S. biotechs as well.

Not listed this year are salaries of CEOs from two companies with significant medical device as well as drug development operations: According to their companies’ proxy filings with the SEC, Baxter International Chairman and CEO Robert L. Parkinson finished 2012 with $17,521,770 in total compensation, up 24.6% from the previous year. And David E.I. Pyott, Allergan’s chairman, president and CEO, received $21,164,198 last year, up 51.4% from his 2011 compensation.