Dr. Uğur Şahin, BioNTech CEO tops the pay list with $287 million in 2025, largely driven by a stock option exercise tied to COVID-19 vaccine success.
Eli Lilly's David Ricks leads Big Pharma executives with compensation around $29–37 million in 2025, depending on the source.
Pfizer's Albert Bourla, Johnson & Johnson's Joaquin Duato, AbbVie's Robert Michael, and Novartis' Vasant Narasimhan are among the Big Pharma CEOs in or near the $30 million club in 2025.
Combined, the top five highest-paid pharma CEOs made about $157.8 million in 2025, up roughly 24% from the previous year.
Sources:
Life Sciences Executive Search: Pharma, Biotech, and MedTech ...
5 notable pharma CEO pay hikes in 2025 - BioPharma Dive
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The top 5 highest paid pharma CEOs in 2025 - BioSpace
CEOs of BioNTech, Pfizer, J&J and Merck Make List of Highest-Paid ...
Pharma CEO Compensation Tops $36.7M in 2025 - LinkedIn
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Lilly, J&J CEOs top pharma's highest paid list—again - BioSpace
Decoding Executive Compensation: What CEOs Earn in the Pharma World
46亿美元打工皇帝诞生——2025药企CEO薪酬深度报道 - 网易
Top 20 Highest-Paid CEOs in Health Care - SalaryExpert Blog