Hospira, Inc. CEO Takes 29 Pct Pay Cut

Struggling with production problems and federal drug regulators, Hospira Inc. hacked CEO F. Michael Ball's compensation by almost 29 percent, to $8.8 million last year, compared with 2011. Mr. Ball's compensation plunged from $12.4 million in 2011, when the Lake Forest-based medical products company gave him a lucrative package to entice him to leave Irvine, Calif.-based Allergan Inc., where he was president. Hospira's “financial results and operational performance were impacted by the supply challenges and increased costs resulting from the company's quality improvement efforts,” the company said in a proxy statement filed today with the Securities and Exchange Commission. As a result, no senior executive's cash bonus was more than 43.5 percent of the target. Mr. Ball's 2012 cash bonus was just $518,000, or 43.5 percent of the targeted $1.2 million. On March 5, the Lake Forest injectable drug manufacturer revealed that the Food and Drug Administration had again inspected its plant in Rocky Mount, N.C. and reported 20 negative findings, three of which had surfaced earlier. The company has “systemic” quality problems, according to a reportreleased two weeks ago by an analyst at New York-based RBC Capital Markets.

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