Pfizer CEO pay jumps on turnaround efforts

Pfizer has said Chief Executive Ian Read’s compensation jumped more than 40 per cent last year to $25 million as he steered a steady course for the world’s biggest drugmaker while its Lipitor cholesterol fighter began facing competition from cheaper generics. Read was named CEO in December, 2010, after the surprise resignation of Jeffrey Kindler, and three months ago he assumed additional responsibility as chairman of the New York-based company. Before taking the helm of Pfizer, he held numerous senior executive roles there for 32 years, including as the global head of pharmaceuticals.  His basic salary for 2011 rose to $1.7 million, from $1.2 million in 2010, the company said on Thursday in a regulatory filing. The value of his stock awards more than doubled to $5.7 million, while the value of his stock option awards rose almost six-fold to $5.7 million, according to the filing.  Read’s annual cash incentive awards more than doubled to $3.5 million, while all other compensation rose to $319,288. The value of his pension and non-qualified deferred compensation rose $6.89 million, compared with almost $11 million in 2010, when Read’s years of service at Pfizer reached a target threshold. “Under the leadership of Ian Read, we set a course to redefine and strengthen Pfizer,” the filing said, as the company faced pricing pressures on its many medicines and the loss of US marketing exclusivity in November on Lipitor. The world’s longtime best-selling drug had annual global sales of $13 billion at its peak. Pfizer said it had improved its performance during 2011 by reducing research spending by nearly $1 billion. That feat came, however, at the expense of thousands of Pfizer researchers, whose jobs are being eliminated along with numerous laboratories.