Most people who leave do BETTER? Maybe if you were 30 when you left, and were making no more than 85K. But
The people that I can think of that were cut during our last downsizing have all taken a major cut in pay. The only people I know that are doing better won 2 or 3 CoE as managers or reps here and are now working at Amgen or Novartis.
Everyone else either "went contract", or got outside of the industry and made a lot less. If you don't believe me, call a recruiter. If CP is to be any marker, I have friends at other pharma companies, and they told me that on their CP sites, you can read the same thing. No one wants to pay six figures to someone that spent many years following a closely scripted "presentation".