Judging from its top line, AstraZeneca had a stellar 2024, generating an 18% increase in revenue, with 14 of the products in its deep portfolio achieving blockbuster sales.
But the British drugmaker did not compensate its CEO accordingly, as Pascal Soriot’s pay package dipped 16% from 17.4 million pounds sterling ($21.9 million) in 2023 to 14.7 million pounds ($18.5 million), according to the company’s annual report.
As AZ explained, a large chunk of compensation is tied to “share price appreciation.” After Soriot helped AZ increase its share price more than sixfold since he took over in 2012, the company’s stock has stagnated over the last two years.
While Soriot’s fixed pay, which includes base pay, taxable benefits and pension, increased in 2024, along with his bonus, Soriot’s long-term incentives—which are closely tied to share price—tumbled from 12.8 million pounds ($16.1 million) in 2023 to 9.4 million pounds ($11.9 million) last year, accounting for his drop in total compensation.
“Despite an increasingly volatile environment globally, Mr Soriot has led AstraZeneca to deliver strong results in 2024, with another year of robust top line growth and impressive results from the pipeline,” the company wrote.
Soriot, 65, who took over as CEO in 2012, has been the highest-paid pharma boss in Europe for the last few years. For much of his tenure, Soriot’s pay has been a target of criticism from investors.
As early as 2014, rebels rallied against his compensation from the prior year, as 40% of voters wouldn’t back AZ's remuneration report. Investor revolts over Soriot’s pay also cropped up in 2018, 2020 and 2023.
The chirping continued last spring as a group of investors lined up support to deny the company’s proposed package, a bid that eventually failed as high-profile investor, Rajiv Jain, the chairman of GQG Partners, told the Financial Times that Soriot was “massively underpaid.”
Through it all, Soriot has guided AZ to much success. The company’s share price since he took over has grown from just $12 to $74.80. AZ’s sales also have increased from $25.7 billion in his first full year at CEO to $54.1 billion in 2024, though a large chunk of revenue arrived with AZ’s $39 billion acquisition of Alexion in 2021.