Three pharma CEOs joined the $30 million compensation club in 2025 but Eli Lilly’s David Ricks exceeded his nearest peer by more than $4 million.
Eli Lilly’s David Ricks and Johnson & Johnson’s Joaquin Duato were once again the highest paid pharma CEOs in 2025, according to a BioSpace analysis. But the former pulled away with $36.7 million for the year, representing a 26% pay bump.
Rarely has a pharma CEO crossed into the cultural zeitgeist like Ricks has. The CEO has been riding a wave of press appearances thanks to Lilly’s juggernaut GLP-1 franchise. He recently made headlines for declaring that it was “disappointing” that only one in 10 Americans were taking a weight loss pill.
Over the past year, Lilly has broken the pharma mold, with the market cap rising 25% in 2025, briefly hitting a $1 trillion valuation. Revenue has risen 45% to $65 billion. The sky appears to be the limit—and Ricks is the captain.
Duato, on the other hand, received 33% more in 2025 compared to the year before, for a total of $32.6 million in pay last year. He helms the largest healthcare company in the world, with J&J’s revenue exceeding Lilly’s across units beyond pharma. J&J’s CEOs have always appeared at the top of the industry’s highest paid lists.
Also joining Duato and Ricks in the $30 million club is AbbVie’s Robert Michael, who took home $32.5 million, a 76% increase. He took over the role from Richard Gonzalez in 2024 and has now exceeded what his predecessor received in his final years at the pharma. Gonzalez received $25.7 million in 2023 before passing over the reins.
Novartis’ Vas Narasimhan catapulted up the list from number seven in 2024 to number four this year, with his pay of $32.4 million.
Pfizer’s Albert Bourla fell from the number three slot in 2024 to fifth in 2025, with $27.6 million in total compensation, still 12% more than he made the previous year. The company has been in a rebuilding phase, with early indicators suggesting a dramatic post-COVID overhaul is working, as reported last week during first quarter earnings.
Bourla’s take home was just below that of Gilead Sciences’ Daniel O’Day, who collected $28.4 million—a 20% increase.
Of course, not all of this money is paid out within the calendar year. Much of the awards that CEOs receive are in the form of stock, which must vest before executives see its cash value. For instance, Merck’s Robert Davis had a total compensation of $20.8 million but was actually paid out $15.8 million, according to the company’s proxy statement.
The average salary across the top 12 highest paid CEOs on our list was $27 million, compared to $21.9 million for 2024.
CEO transitions
GSK’s Emma Walmsley rose up the list in 2025, from number 12th to ninth, with her pay of $21.2 million, a 55% increase. She rose over Vertex’s Reshma Kewalramani to become the highest paid woman CEO in pharma. Once again, there are more men named Robert—Merck’s Davis, AbbVie’s Michael and Amgen’s Bradway—on the top paid CEO list than there are women.
GSK’s board embarked on a process to ratchet up Walmsley’s pay in 2025—only for her to announce her intention to step down from the role in September 2025. She passed the torch to Luke Miels effective January 1. Miels should expect to benefit from Walmsley’s compensation overhaul, according to the company’s renumeration report. However, he’s expected to make slightly less than his predecessor in his first year given this is his first turn as CEO. Miels is a GSK veteran, though, having served as chief commercial officer since 2017.
GSK noted in its renumeration report that Miels will begin his tenure even further behind his peers, which have continued to see their compensation packages rise.
“While the board decided that Luke was the best available candidate regardless of the package other candidates could command, the Committee did note that several candidates earned considerably more than the outgoing CEO which reinforces our commitment, subject to ongoing performance, of moving to a competitive median level,” the board wrote in the pay report.
Including salary, annual bonus and long-term incentives, Miels should expect about £8.4 million ($11.4 million) as compared to the £8.8 million ($12 million) that Walmsley received for those three components of the execs’ compensation packages. In addition, GSK also offers stock awards, which totaled about $13.6 million for Walmsley last year.
Sanofi has also undergone a CEO transition, with Paul Hudson let go in February this year. Hudson did not exactly make our list and was excluded from the top 12 analysis, but his severance package is worthy of mention.
Hudson walked away with about €23,111,535 ($27.2 million), according to a document outlining his departure. That amounts to a 131% pay bump over his 2024 compensation of $10 million. The 2025 figure includes termination fees and vested stock. He also received a prorated amount based on his planned annual compensation for 2026.
Novo Nordisk, which has been fighting to reclaim the obesity market from fierce rival Eli Lilly, also fired its CEO in 2025 and therefore did not make BioSpace’s analysis. The board announced that Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen would step down in May 2025. He remained in the role until August, when Maziar Mike Doustdar stepped in. Jørgensen, who had been CEO since 2017, still took home 123,600,000 DKK ($19.5 million) last year, including severance and non-compete compensation, according to the company’s pay report. That’s up from 57.1 million DKK ($9 million) in 2024.
Doustdar, who inherited a storied company with major competition problems, will have to work to get his compensation back to where Jørgensen ended his tenure by boosting Novo’s fortunes, the company explained. The new CEO was paid 20.7 million DKK ($3.3 million), which amounts to about 34.6 million DKK ($5.4 million) annually.
In the red
Two CEOs actually saw their pay decrease in 2025: At Vertex, Kewalramanifell 2% to $21.1 million and Merck’s Robert Davis dropped 10% to $20.8 million.
Vertex touted Kewalramani’s success throughout the year, without explaining the slight drop. Her salary went up slightly, but non-equity incentive compensation was lower. The board noted the success of launches for pain therapy Journavx and cystic fibrosis med Alyftrek, and continued momentum for the gene therapy Casgevy.
Over at Merck, Davis saw his stock, option and long-term incentive awards decline.
