NEW YORK (AP) – Outgoing Pfizer Chairman and CEO Jeffery B. Kindler will receive about $9.6 million in cash, plus stock and retirement benefits, as part of his compensation after abruptly leaving the drug developer following four-and-a-half years as its leader.
Kindler will receive a bonus cash payment of just under $3.3 million, a short-term incentive award of $1.8 million, and a cash severance payment of just over $4.5 million, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. The plan also includes an existing retirement benefit worth about $6.9 million and stock options consisting of restricted stock units, options and performance shares.
In 2009, Kindler’s compensation totaled $13.7 million. That included salary, incentives and stock options, according to calculations by The Associated Press.
On Sunday, Pfizer said Ian Read, 57, would replace Kindler as CEO and also take the position of president. His most recent position was senior vice president and head of the biopharmaceutical unit. He has worked at Pfizer for more than 30 years in a variety of positions. Read takes the reins of the drug developer as it deals with a declining share price, repeated failures of potential new products and expirations of patents on key drugs.
The company said its board of directors will elect a non-executive chairman from its current membership at its next regularly scheduled meeting in the next two weeks.
The patent on Pfizer’s best-selling drug, the cholesterol medication Lipitor, will expire in late 2011. It brings in about $13 billion in annual sales, but those figures are sure to plummet when generic competition hits the market. Patents have already expired on the company’s antidepressant Effexor XR and Alzheimer’s drug Aricept.
Meanwhile, Pfizer has seen at least half a dozen drugs fail in the last stage of clinical testing in the past year and a half, including its Alzheimer’s disease treatment Dimebon, osteoarthritis treatment tanezumab, and cancer drug figitumumab.
Date: December 9, 2010
Source: Associated Press
