Novartis CEO's 2020 pay drops to $11.6M, no thanks to COVID-19's drag on sales

Novartis’ group sales took a hit from COVID-19, and so did CEO Vas Narasimhan’s 2020 pay.

The Swiss pharma handed its CEO a pay package worth CHF10.38 million ($11.61 million) for 2020, down from CHF 11.44 million in 2019, according to its annual report (PDF).

Narasimhan’s base salary did increase by 5.5% over 2019’s level, but it was the annual bonus—a large part of which was tied to Novartis’ financial performance last year—that turned out to be a drag.