In his 13 years as CEO at Amgen, Robert Bradway has seen many of his counterparts at other major biopharma companies come and go.
A major part of the reason Bradway, 62, has remained in charge at the Southern California drugmaker is because its revenue has more than doubled during his tenure—from $15.6 billion in the year before he took over to $33.4 billion in 2024.
As a result, Amgen has made Bradway one of the most highly paid chief executives in the industry. Last year, Bradway scored $24.4 million in total compensation, his all-time high with the company and an 8% hike on his 2023 compensation, according to the company’s proxy filing.
The pay package puts Bradway in the same ballpark as several other U.S. pharma honchos including Pfizer’s Albert Bourla, Ph.D., ($24.6 million), Johnson & Johnson’s Joaquin Duato ($24.3 million), Gilead Sciences' Daniel O’Day ($23.7 million) and Merck’s Robert Davis ($23.2 million).
Riding high behind the sales of its diabetes and obesity drugs, Eli Lilly paid CEO David Ricks $29.2 million last year, the top figure among Big Pharma companies that have published their proxy reports.
Before coming to Amgen in 2006, Bradway spent two decades as a banker at Morgan Stanley. Before taking over as CEO, he was Amgen’s chief financial officer from 2007 to 2010 and chief operating officer from 2010 to 2012.
“The Board believes that Mr. Bradway brings a unique, stockholder-focused insight to assist the company to most effectively execute its strategy and business plans to maximize stockholder value,” Amgen wrote in the proxy filing.
Bradway’s compensation included a salary of $1.87 million, equity awards of $18 million and a bonus of $3.84 million. The equity award figure was up from $15.9 million in 2023, with Amgen explaining that the bump was based on his “successful execution of the company’s strategic priorities, including the Horizon acquisition and other activities in support of the long-term growth of the company.”
Meanwhile, in his first year as Amgen's R&D chief following seven years in the same role at Novartis, Jay Bradner collected $14.9 million in total compensation. Of that figure, $10.8 million came from equity awards.
Bradner received $5 million in restricted stock units and cash awards to compensate him for “equity forfeited as a result of the commencement of his employment with us,” Amgen said in the filing.
Amgen’s other top execs gained small increases in pay in 2024, with commercial chief Murdo Gordon receiving $8.5 million in total pay, Chief Technology Officer David Reese collecting $8.1 million and Chief Financial Officer Peter Griffith receiving $7.8 million.