In his final year as CEO at Bristol Myers Squibb, Giovanni Caforio took a slight dip in pay to $19.7 million, down from the $20.1 million he collected in 2022, according to the company’s proxy filing (PDF).
Compared with most of the other CEOs in his Big Pharma orbit, Caforio, 60, saw remarkably little change in his compensation over his eight-year tenure as BMS' helmsman. In each of his final seven years in charge of the New Jersey company, he received between $18.7 million and $20.1 million.
Meanwhile, the company's revenue increased from $16.6 billion in 2015 to $45 billion last year. Sales, however, have fallen the last two years. A large chunk of the revenue increase over Caforio’s tenure can be attributed to BMS' $74 billion buyout of Celgene in 2019.
Caforio’s stock awards—which are tabulated as performance share units in the company’s lexicon—increased from $14.29 million in 2022 to $14.47 million last year. His salary increased from $1.7 million to $1.75 million, along with his other compensation from $613,000 to $735,000.
His cash bonus, meanwhile, dropped from $3.45 million to $2.71 million.
Caforio, who will head up the board of directors during a transition period, has handed the keys to the CEO office over to Chris Boerner, 53, who received $8.5 million last year, which was up from his 2022 pay of $6.9 million when he served as chief commercial officer. A large chunk of his pay increase came from a stock awards increase.
Boerner, who came to BMS in 2015 after five years at Seagen, faces a daunting patent cliff with the recent loss of exclusivity of blood cancer drug Revlimid and the oncoming loss of patent protection for blood thinner Eliquis in 2026 and versatile cancer med Opdivo in 2028.
Caforio has helped set up BMS for success in the transition, however, overseeing 12 product launches during his tenure. These include newly approved plaque psoriasis drug Sotyktu, obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy treatment Camzyos and melanoma therapy Opdualag. The company also has taken a leading role in launching cancer cell therapies with Abecma and Breyanzi.