Big Pharma’s Highest Paid CEOs
May 23, 2008 7:08 am PharmaFollowing is a list of the top salaries among Pharma CEOs. The data was gathered by Fierce Pharma. It is enough to make you furious — or is it? I also list some celebrities’ salaries. Are you furious about these salaries, or do you admire these people?
I was at a dinner party recently where my host declared that, “in America, no one should be allowed to make over $1 M per year?” Now I know those kind of ceilings exist in some socialist countries, but I think the America most of the readers of this blog want is not one with ceilings on salaries.
Nonetheless, money can mean power. And if we have a government which is big, bulky and has too much power, it is easier to corrupt with money. So we should fear a big government which can be bought by large salaries, not the salaries.
Top Pharma CEO salaries
1. Miles White - Abbott - $33.4M
2. Fred Hassan - Schering-Plough - $30.1M
3. Bill Weldon - Johnson & Johnson - $25.1M
4. Bob Essner - Wyeth - $24.1M
5. Robert Parkinson - Baxter - $17.6M
6. Daniel Vasella - Novartis - $15.5M
7. Richard Clark - Merck - $14.5M
8. Frank Baldino - Cephalon - $13.5M
9. Sidney Taurel - Eli Lilly - $13M
10. Jeff Kindler - Pfizer - $12.6M
11. Jim Cornelius - Bristol-Myers Squibb - $11.3
12. Franz Humer - Roche - $11.1M
13. Robert Coury - Mylan - $8.5M
14. Jean-Pierre Garnier - GlaxoSmithKline - $6M
15. Werner Wenning - Bayer - $4.77M
16. David Brennan - AstraZeneca - $4.3M
17. Gerard Le Fur - Sanofi-Aventis - $3.27M
Top Sport Stars Salaries 2008 (source:USA Today)
1 Rodriguez, Alex $ 28,000,000 New York Yankees
2 Giambi, Jason $ 23,428,571 New York Yankees
3 Jeter, Derek $ 21,600,000 New York Yankees
4 Ramirez, Manny $ 18,929,923 Boston Red Sox
5 Beltran, Carlos $ 18,622,809 New York Mets
6 Suzuki, Ichiro $ 17,102,149 Seattle Mariners
7 Santana, Johan $ 16,984,216 New York Mets
8 Helton, Todd $ 16,600,000 Colorado Rockies
9 Hunter, Torii $ 16,500,000 Los Angeles Angels
10 Abreu, Bobby $ 16,000,000 New York Yankees
Top Celebrity Earners (source: Forbes Magazine)
1. Steven Spielberg — $340 million.
2. DJ Howard Stern — $308 million.
3. George Lucas — $240 million.
4. Oprah Winfrey — $230 million.
5. Comedian and actor Jerry Seinfeld — $102 million.
6. Golfer Tiger Woods — $93 million.
7. Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown — $91 million.
8. Pirates of the Caribbean producer Jerry Bruckheimer — $85 million.
9. JK Rowling — $78 million.
10. Law and Order creator Dick Wolf — $72 million.