
Teva CEO Kåre Schultz brought home $14.7M last year, soaring past some of Europe's top-paid pharma execs
The numbers are in on Teva CEO Kåre Schultz’s 2021 pay package — and while his comp was a bit lower than last year, it still rang higher than some of Europe’s top-paid pharma execs.
Schultz took home nearly $14.7 million last year, up from about $15.7 million the year prior. About $2 million of that was considered base salary, according to Teva’s compensation report. The 60-year-old chief executive has been at the helm since 2017.
That pay cut could be due to the fact that revenues were down 5% last year compared to 2020, which the company attributed in part to generic competition to its multiple sclerosis drug Copaxone.
Best known as a major maker of generics, Teva has been steadily booting up R&D for branded drugs as part of a promised turnaround. Back in August, it recruited Moderna veteran Tal Zaks to its board. The company’s Huntington’s disease treatment Austedo and migraine med Ajovy will be a big part of those efforts, Schultz said, both of which saw increases in sales last year partly making up for Copaxone’s lower numbers.
“Looking forward to 2022, we expect to see continued growth of our key products AUSTEDO and AJOVY, as well as to continue to advance our core business through the launch of high quality generic medicines around the world,” Schultz said in a statement regarding the company’s Q4 results.
Teva also noted the impact of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
However, Schultz still took home a significantly higher amount than some of Europe’s highest-earning pharma chiefs, including Roche CEO Severin Schwan who raked in 11.5 million CHF ($12.4 million) last year, and Novartis head Vas Narasimhan, who claimed 11.2 million CHF ($12 million).
Those numbers pale in comparison to what some of the US’ top-paid pharma execs see on a yearly basis, including J&J’s Alex Gorsky, who brought home right around $26.7 million last year, a $2.8 million drop compared to the year before. Eli Lilly’s Dave Ricks amassed $23.7 million in 2020, while Giovanni Caforio at Bristol Myers Squibb claimed $20 million for the same stretch.