THE chief executive of BioNTech received a staggering nine-figure pay package last year, according to the industry website Fierce Pharma. The bulk of Dr Uğur Şahin’s $287million (£212million) recompense came from exercising share options, and took him to the top of the publication’s list of highest-paid pharma CEOs.
Eli Lilly’s CEO, David Ricks, was second on the list with $29.2million in total compensation. Eli Lilly makes the weight-loss blockbuster drugs Zepbound and Mounjaro, which rival Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and Wegovy. In July, Eli Lilly will start selling the drugs online at discounted prices directly to consumers who have a prescription.
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla ranked third, with a total compensation of $24.6million — his second-highest annual salary after his $33million payout in 2022, when Pfizer was reaping massive profits from its covid vaccine and its antiviral Paxlovid.
The CEOs of Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca also made the list, even after the disastrous outcomes for their covid vaccines. Johnson & Johnson’s shot, associated with serious and life-threatening blood clots, is no longer available in the US. AstraZeneca similarly had to withdraw its vaccine from global sales in 2024, after conceding the shot caused potentially fatal blood clots.
Merck’s Robert Davis moved up from No 10 to No 7 last year, earning $23.2million. That’s almost double what he made in 2021, when he took over as CEO of the company that makes the Gardasil HPV vaccine, Pneumovax 23, and the MMRII vaccine, among others.
Executives’ total salaries typically include a combination of a base salary plus bonuses and profits tied to equity positions in the companies they lead.
Fierce Pharma said the massive pay packages ‘seem to further cement a new status quo in the realm of CEO compensation, as several recently appointed leaders settle into their roles and companies establish their market positions heading into the second half of the decade.’
BioNTech’s Şahin was paid a salary of $3.4million in 2024. However, he also exercised an option to cash out a large portion of his shares in the company, for a $287million payout, more than ten times greater than any other executive on the list.
Fierce Pharma called the payout ‘eye-popping’, but noted that it was less than the 2023 payout to Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel, who cashed in his stock options for more than $392million (£290m) that year.
Such payouts have been ongoing, at least since the covid vaccines first became available.
Despite public criticism, other pharma execs also cashed in during the pandemic. Their salaries have remained high ever since.
According to a 2021 report by Accountable.US, a nonprofit organisation that monitors public corruption, executives at five drug companies — Moderna, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Emergent BioSolutions (contracted to manufacture Johnson & Johnson’s covid vaccine) and Novavax — made $250million dumping company stocks during the first six months of ‘Operation Warp Speed’.
In addition to blockbuster drugs that net massive profits for Big Pharma, the highest-grossing companies also continue to hike drug prices and are embroiled in legal battles to stop regulators from keeping prices down.
Drug companies have also largely opposed President Trump’s executive order on drug pricing, particularly the ‘Most-Favored Nation’ concept, which seeks to tie US drug prices to the lower prices paid in other developed countries
Drugmakers often claim that price hikes are necessary to cover the costs of research and development. However, research shows that in recent years, the top five US-based companies have spent more on stock buybacks and dividend payouts than on research and development.
The full list of top-paid pharma chief executives:
- Uğur Şahin, BioNTech, $287million
- David Ricks, Eli Lilly, $29.2million
- Albert Bourla, Pfizer, $24.6million
- Robert Bradway, Amgen, $24.4million
- Joaquin Duato, Johnson & Johnson, $24.6million
- Daniel O’Day, Gilead Sciences, $23.7million
- Robert Davis, Merck & Co., $23.2million
- Pascal Soriot, AstraZeneca, $22.9million
- Reshma Kewalramani, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, $21.54million
- Chris Boerner, Bristol Myers Squibb, $18.8million
Despite their high salaries, none of the U.S.-based executives made Becker’s Hospital Review’s list of the 37 people in the U.S. Healthcare who are on Forbes’ annual World’s Billionaires List. Moderna’s Bancel is on the Forbes list, with a net worth of $1.2billion.
Bancel wasn’t included on Fierce Pharma’s list because its rankings included only companies with market caps of $25billion or greater, but Fierce Pharma reported in March that Bancel’s 2024 salary was $19.87million. The company added a second approved mRNA vaccine to its two-product portfolio in 2024, when it won approval for its mRESVIA RSV vaccine for older adults.
Last week, Moderna won expanded approval for the drug for adults ages 18 and older.
This article appeared in The Defender on June 16, 2025, and is republished by kind permission.
