Ever heard of Iqvia? Its CEO made $38 million
Ari Bousbib was the highest paid chief in the pharmaceutical industry, even topping J&J
Iqvia Holdings Inc. is hardly a household name, but its boss made more last year than the chief executive of Johnson & Johnson — or any other big pharmaceutical or biotech company.
Iqvia doesn’t have some blockbuster drug or cutting-edge genetic treatment. It is a data company that collects prescription sales, medical claims and other patient records, and analyzes that information for drugmakers, insurance companies and governments. It also provides testing services to drug companies.
Last year, the Durham, N.C., company paid its CEO, Ari Bousbib, $38 million (U.S.). J&J, the largest U.S. pharmaceutical company by revenue, paid its CEO, Alex Gorsky, $29.8 million in 2017. J&J had about $76 billion in revenue in 2017, Iqvia’s was about $8 billion.
The two companies delivered similar shareholder gains last year. J&J’s stock-price appreciation plus dividends returned 24.4 per cent to investors, while the smaller company returned 28.7 per cent.
Mr. Bousbib’s 2017 pay included a one-time retention equity award valued at about $20 million following an October 2016 merger between IMS Health, a data company where he was CEO, and Quintiles, which assisted pharmaceutical companies with clinical trials. The combined company was then renamed Iqvia.
“The special one-time retention equity grant vests over four years and was awarded to recognize the special circumstances around the appointment of our CEO as the CEO of the new company that resulted from the merger,” an Iqvia spokesperson said. Much of the CEO’s compensation is tied to the company’s performance, she said.
Mr. Bousbib, 56 years old, joined IMS Health in 2010 after spending 14 years in executive roles at industrial conglomerate United Technologies Inc. In 2015, IMS increased his pay to more than $34 million from about $25 million. The company said in its 2015 regulatory filings that Mr. Bousbib might be an attractive job candidate for other companies, which contributed to his increased compensation along with his performance as CEO. The median CEO pay for 25 pharmaceutical, biotechnology and life-science executives in the S&P 500 was $16.08 million, above the overall median of $12.1million for CEOs at all S&P 500 companies, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of pay data from MyLogIQ LLC.
Median overall shareholder returns for companies in these medical sectors were about 22 per cent compared with 19 per cent overall, according to performance data from ISS Analytics. The Journal analysis used Standard & Poor’s industry group for pharmaceutical, biotechnology and life sciences companies, which includes data providers like Iqvia as well as instrument suppliers such as Mettler-Toledo International Inc. The Journal’s analysis excludes CEOs who changed jobs or served less than a full year.