CEO of $2 Trillion Market Cap Pharmaceutical Company's Annual Salary Exposed

On February 24th, local time, AstraZeneca’s filing revealed that the company’s CEO, Pascal Soriot, will have a salary of £17.7 million (approximately 164 million RMB) in 2025, making him one of the highest-paid executives in the UK FTSE 100 index.

AstraZeneca is also the most valuable company listed on the London Stock Exchange, with a latest market capitalization exceeding $320 billion (about 2.2 trillion RMB). Benefiting from strong company performance and stock price growth, Soriot received an annual bonus of up to £4.3 million in 2025, about 22% higher than in 2024.

As of this month, European pharmaceutical executives’ 2025 annual salaries have been gradually disclosed. Recently, Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis announced that its CEO, Vas Narasimhan, earned a salary of 24.9 million Swiss francs (about 220 million RMB) in 2025, a 30% increase from 2024, reaching a new high since he took office in 2018.

Narasimhan’s salary surge is also due to high payouts from the company’s long-term performance plan. From 2023 to 2025, his long-term incentive plan payout rate reached 188%, valued at 17.3 million Swiss francs. Over the past three years, Novartis’s stock price soared from about $90 at the end of 2022 to nearly $160 in early 2026, with a total shareholder return of 84%, ranking second among 15 global healthcare peers.

Another Swiss pharmaceutical giant, Roche CEO Thomas Schinecker, received a total compensation of 10.2 million Swiss francs (about 90.75 million RMB) in 2025.

Additionally, according to disclosures of executive compensation from French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi, its CEO Paul Huson earned a total of €10.9 million (about 88.37 million RMB) in 2025. Huson has served as Sanofi’s CEO since 2019 but stepped down on February 17th this year, meaning he will not receive performance bonuses for fiscal year 2026.

Star weight-loss drug maker, Danish pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk, experienced a challenging year. The company replaced its leadership in August last year, with Maziar Mike Doustdar succeeding Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen as CEO.

Novo Nordisk’s annual compensation report disclosed that during Doustdar’s few months in office, he received 20.7 million Danish kroner (about 22.46 million RMB); Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen earned nearly $20 million in total compensation in 2025 (about 1.37 billion RMB), including a $6.82 million severance package and over $9.3 million in total compensation.

Currently, the annual salaries of U.S. pharmaceutical executives for 2025 have not yet been disclosed. Based on previous years’ levels, U.S. pharma executives generally earn more than their European counterparts. In 2024, among the top five global pharmaceutical CEOs by compensation, Eli Lilly CEO David Ricks earned $29.2 million (about 200 million RMB), ranking first in the industry; Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla earned $24.6 million (about 170 million RMB), ranking second.