Eli Lilly warned its investors in January that generic competition to its hit drugs
Cymbalta and Evista would cause revenues to fall from $23 billion last year to
just under $20 billion this year--but that hasn't stopped CEO John Lechleiter from taking
home a rich pay package. Even as the company was freezing salaries and laying
off 1,000 sales reps, Lechleiter's pay package rose 10% in 2013 to $11.2
million, according to the New York Times annual look at CEO pay at the
100 largest U.S. companies.
Lechleiter was one of six
pharma CEOs to make the NYT 2013 executive-pay ranking, which the
paper appropriately headlined "Invasion of the Supersalaries." But he
wasn't at the top of the list of highly paid drug industry execs. That position
went to Abbott's Miles White, who saw
his pay rise 8% to $20.5 million, placing him in the 13th spot
overall on the NYT list.
Not far behind White was Richard Gonzalez, CEO of the
Abbott pharma spinoff AbbVie, whose pay package in the company's first full independent year was set
at $18.1 million. It was an eye-popping compensation package--double what
Gonzalez was making in 2012, when he was running the pharma unit inside of
Abbott--but not surprising considering the parent company's compensation
history: White consistently ranks at or near the top of FiercePharma's
annual list of the highest-paid drug company CEOs.
Pfizer CEO Ian Read came in 29th in the NYT ranking, with 2013 pay totaling $17.7
million, a 4% drop over the previous year. His base salary went up only
slightly, from $1.75 million to $1.78 million. But the overall value of his pay
package has dropped significantly from 2011, when he was promoted to CEO and
given a salary plus bonus and stock totaling $25 million.
Johnson & Johnson CEO Alex Gorsky, who took
over for William Weldon in April 2012, brought home $15.2 million in
compensation last year, according to the NYT. Gorsky has some catching
up to do: Weldon's 2012 compensation was $30 million, despite slowing sales
growth and supply problems at its McNeil Consumer Healthcare unit.
Amgen CEO Robert Bradway took home
$13.6 million--not bad, but surprisingly low considering he pulled off the
largest pharma M&A deal of 2013, buying Onyx Pharmaceuticals for $10.4
billion.