Top 6 Highest Paid Pharma CEOs in 2024

Eli Lilly CEO David Ricks has overtaken Johnson & Johnson’s Joaquin Duato as the highest paid chief executive in pharma, taking home $29.2 million in 2024.

It’s no wonder after the whirlwind year that Ricks and crew had as they cleared a manufacturing and supply backlog to officially obtain blockbuster status for weight loss drug Zepbound. Ricks’ pay represents a 10% bump over his 2023 compensation.

Pfizer’s Albert Bourla also received a sizeable increase in pay, with a 14% jump putting him at just over $24.6 million for 2024. Duato, conversely, made some 14% less in 2024, putting him at number three on the list with just under $24.6 million.

Working down the list, Amgen’s Robert Bradway, Gilead’s Daniel O’Day and Merck’s Robert Davis took the fourth, fifth and sixth slots, all topping $23 million. Here’s a fun fact: There are more men named Robert on the top CEO pay list than there are women.

Vertex Pharmaceuticals’ Reshma Kewalramani took the number eight slot overall with $21.5 million, while GSK’s Emma Walmsley was way down at number 12 with her $13.7 million paycheck. Walmsley’s comp was actually a 16% decline compared with her 2023 pay of about $16.6 million. But that’s set to change for the better. GSK has approved a massive raise for 2025 to bring Walmsley in line with her peers. She will take home as much as $27.2 million this year, which represents a 107% increase and would have put her comfortably in the number two slot on this year’s list.

Bristol Myers Squibb’s Christopher Boerner saw a raise of nearly that magnitude this year, bringing home 122% more than 2023 with $18.9 million in total compensation. He took the helm at BMS in November 2023, so there’s no surprise in seeing him ascend the pharma pay ladder so quickly.

The majority of the executives’ earnings came from stock options, which is how Ricks got his big payday, to the tune of $19.7 million. Roche’s Thomas Schinecker has the highest base salary with $3.7 million.

Bonuses are scarce in the industry, particularly among U.S. companies, which did not report any bonuses for executives this year. Stock and other incentives tend to provide a boost instead. Among the companies on our list that did offer bonuses, Schinecker had the highest, at $3.9 million.

Read on for how the companies with the top 6 highest paid CEOs justified the payments.

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Eli Lilly

2024 Pay: $29.2 million
YOY Change: 10%

It was, by all measures, a pretty good year for Lilly. Ricks helped increase revenue by 32% to $45 billion in 2024, with non-GAAP earnings per share rising 106% to $12.99, according to the company’s annual report. Under Ricks, Alzheimer’s disease monoclonal antibody Kisunla was finally approved while Ebglyss got an FDA nod in Crohn’s disease.

The company also had multiple positive data readouts, including multiple studies for tirzepatide in heart failure and diabetes risk reduction. On the deals side, Ricks executed the acquisition of immunology biotech Morphic Holdings.

He also oversaw the development of new R&D facilities and manufacturing sites and launched LillyDirect, a direct-to-consumer portal to access Lilly’s medicines such as the weight loss drug Zepbound.

All of this helped Ricks, who has been Lilly’s CEO since 2017, take home above-target payouts, according to the report.

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Pfizer

2024 Pay: $24.6 million
YOY Change: 14%

Pfizer’s Albert Bourla had to turn around the ship in 2024. He helped trim $4 billion in savings under the pharma’s massive “cost realignment” program, according to Pfizer’s annual report. And so, the board was able to find a few millions under the couch cushions to spare for the chief executive. Bourla got a 14% pay bump, mainly from option awards and other incentives.

Other key achievements, according to the board, were his work transforming Pfizer’s commercial operations and 14 regulatory approvals in oncology and other key programs.

Few pharmas report 2025 compensation plans for their CEOs, but Pfizer is an exception. Bourla is set to make $23.4 million next year.

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Johnson & Johnson

2024 Pay: $24.6 million
YOY Change: -14%

Johnson & Johnson’s CEO Joaquin Duato fell shy of Pfizer’s Bourla by less than $100,000, landing in the number three slot for the year.

According to J&J’s board, Duato exceeded expectations for the year. Under his leadership, J&J surpassed its operational sales, adjusted operational earnings per share and free cash flow goals.

He was rewarded with an annual performance bonus of 115% of target and long-term incentives at 130% of target. This all added up to $24.5 million for Duato, which was actually a 14% cut from his 2023 compensation.

The board also noted Duato’s work to move forward J&J’s product portfolio, “substantial progress against our human capital management goals” and advancing capital allocation across R&D, acquisitions and shareholder dividends.

J&J plans to keep Duato’s base salary rate of $1.6 million the same for 2025.

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Amgen

2024 Pay: $24.4 million
YOY Change: 8%

Amgen’s explanation of CEO Robert Bradway’s pay was short and sweet, as in there wasn’t an extended justification in the proxy report like other pharmas. But the board liked his work on the Horizon Therapeutics acquisition, which completed in 2023 after a lengthy face-off with the Federal Trade Commission. The board, which he chairs, was also thrilled with his overall execution of the company’s strategic priorities and his work to support Amgen’s long-term growth.

Otherwise, Amgen’s year has been defined by its market-chasing efforts in obesity. A latecomer behind Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly, Amgen has been playing catch up with the antibody peptide conjugate MariTide. Analysts are especially keen on the asset’s ability to beat the incumbents, but data released in November 2024 disappointed investors, sending Amgen’s shares tumbling. MariTide achieved pretty similar weight loss results to Lilly’s Zepbound with “clinically meaningful improvements” in certain cardiometabolic measures such as blood pressure and triglycerides, according to Amgen.

Amgen’s edge is that MariTide is being tested as a monthly dose, rather than once a week for injectables or daily for oral.

Elsewhere, Bradway executed a $1 billion manufacturing expansion in North Carolina last year, adding to previous investments in the region announced in 2022. This may prove to be a prescient move by Bradway as his Big Pharma peers like J&J and Eli Lilly clamor to bring manufacturing back to the U.S. amid ongoing tariff threats from President Donald Trump.

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Gilead

2024 Pay: $23.7 million
YOY Change: 5%

Gilead spent 2024 readying an FDA application for the twice-yearly HIV treatment lenacapavir and in December, it was finally submitted. This, plus the successful growth of the daily HIV pill Biktarvy, are just some of the highlights the board cited in its compensation report for 2024.

In order to get the lenacapavir launch underway—Gilead has promised to have the highly anticipated medicine ready by this summer—O’Day and crew have had to make some tough decisions. About 150 employees were laid off in April, which the company attributed to an alignment of resources in preparation for lenacapavir.

Other highlights noted by the board beyond Gilead’s HIV work include the growth of the cell therapy portfolio through the company’s Kite unit. O’Day enjoyed a 5% pay bump for 2024, owing mostly to $12.4 million in stock awards.

In the background, O’Day also negotiated the next steps for Gilead’s long-term Galapagos partnership, which had gone awry after a number of clinical failures. O’Day admitted in a reporter roundtable in January that the multi-billion-dollar Galapagos deal didn’t turn out as expected. Now, a new company is being formed to take on $2.5 billion in cash that was left over from the partnership and find new assets to develop.

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Merck & Co.

2024 pay: $23 million
YOY Change: 14%

Merck CEO Robert Davis, who has been in the role since 2021, is now making more than his predecessor Ken Frazier, who left the company with $22.1 million for the full year 2020. Davis faced a great challenge when he took over the role: replace Keytruda, which is facing patent expiration in 2028 and is Merck’s leading revenue generator.

Merck is still heavily reliant on that drug, whose sales grew 22% in 2024 to reach $29 billion. But the company also initiated 20 Phase III clinical trials in oncology, ophthalmology and immunology. Davis and his business development team bought Harpoon Therapeutics and Eyebiotech, and an oncology asset from Curon Biopharmaceutical, all in 2024. Additional major licensing deals were signed with Hansoh and LaNova.

But it was not all smooth sailing for Davis. During third quarter earnings Merck lowered its full-year sales guidance as HPV vaccine Gardasil struggled in China. Nevertheless, analysts were upbeat about the quarter and Merck’s overall growth outlook.

Editor’s Note: The top 20 pharmas by market cap were examined and ranked by total CEO compensation for this feature.