Which drug exec gets paid 140 percent more than the median among his peers? Hint: His company makes the anti-narcolepsy med Provigil [1]. And he made a cool $13.5 million last year (the AP says $16 million). That paycheck included a $1.2 million salary, $2.2 million in bonus, and $10.1 million in stock and options.

If you said Cephalon CEO Frank Baldino (photo [2]), you're correct. Baldino beat out Big Pharma chiefs Jeff Kindler ($9.5 million [3], according to the WSJ) and Bristol-Myers Squibb's Jim Cornelius ($11.3 million [4]). That's saying something, considering the fact that Cephalon's $1.8 billion in revenues is dwarfed by Pfizer's $48.6 billion and Bristol's $19 billion.

Actually, Baldino qualified for an even bigger bonus, the company said, but its compensation committee decided to shave a bit off the top because of Cephalon's recent $425 million settlement [5] with the U.S. Attorney's office in Philadelphia. The company was under investigation for off-label marketing violations [6].

- read the item [7] at the WSJ Health Blog
- check out the AP's figures [8] here

Related Articles:
FTC sues Cephalon for blocking generics. Report [9]
Cephalon to pay $425M settlement. Report [10]
Cephalon takes heat for off-label narcotic promotion. Report [11]