Novart's ceo's annual salary fell to $11.61 million last year as a result of the outbreak

chief executive Vas Narasimhan's annual pay has also been hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as sales at Novarma, the pharmaceutical giant.Novart's latest annual financial detail shows that Mr Narasimhan's salary in 2020 will be 10.38m Swiss francs ($11.61m), down about 10 per cent from 11.44m Swiss francs in 2019.While the results show that Mr Narasimhan's base salary is up 5.5 per cent from 2019, the final total pay cut is due to year-end bonuses, much of which are tied to Novart's 2020 financial results.Like other biopharmaceutical companies, Novarma has slowed down with the emergence of COVID-19. In 2020, the Swiss drugmaker achieved total sales of $48.7 billion, the only value below the performance target set by Narasimham's bonus.And that's not a value that can be easily ignored, with the company accounting for 18% of sales on his bonus scorecard. Novart has performed well in other financial measures, namely operating income and free cash flow. This has also been demonstrated and rewarded in 2019, when Novart exceeded all expectations in terms of group sales, operating income and free cash flow.In addition, Novart's clinical and regulatory progress in 2020 has not met the standards, with the COVID-19 pandemic again being the main cause;Earlier this week, Entresto added an adaptation to the shot fraction that retains heart failure in patients, but it's a little late. The FDA's decision was apparently later than Novarma's board expected because of data delays related to COVID-19. At the same time, the gene therapy Zolgensma has encountered an obstacle in its promotion to patients with spinal muscular dystrophy in older people, mainly because some clinical trials of the drug's intra-drug preparation have been suspended.On the upbeat side, Novarma did win FDA approval for Tabrecta (capmatinib) treatment for patients with met exon 14 mutant non-small cell lung cancer, ahead of rival Merck's Tepotinib (Tepotinib, Tepotinib). Novartis' new CD20 targeted antibody Kesimpta (ofatumumab, ofofatoumab) was also introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic, but entered the crowded market for multiple sclerosis treatments, apparently with some impact on sales.In his 2019 pay package, Narasimhan chose bonuses related to "building trust with society" - a measure that involves ethical standards, drug pricing and other social values. The decision came after Novarma's AveXis division, now known as Novarma's gene therapy division, exposed tampering with animal test data in Zolgensma's application and delayed reporting it to the FDA.In 2020, Novarid's board found that Narasimhan's management team's performance was "significantly higher" than their ethical goals. These include resolving a "marathon" long-running legal battle over whistleblower kickback allegations. In mid-2020, the company agreed to pay more than $700 million to cover claims that it used speaker programs as a disguise to pay kickbacks to doctors in exchange for prescriptions. Novaral also introduced a new code of ethics in September 2020 to regulate marketing practices.Overall, Novart's board paid Narasimhan a total of 2.64 million Swiss francs in annual incentive compensation, which is exactly the same as its target amount. But it is common for chief executives of big biopharmaceutical companies to win higher-than-target bonuses, such as Narasimhan's 160 per cent target incentive bonus of 4.02 million Swiss francs in 2019.The majority of Narasimhan's equity grants in 2020 come from long-term incentives of CHF 5.71 million. The grants will not be assessed until the end of 2022, when he will be paid twice that amount. So far, Novart's sales growth has been below target due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Its relative total shareholder return is only 11th out of 15 groups.In contrast to the decline in Mr Narasimhan's pay package in 2020, his real take-back salary rose to 12.72 million Swiss francs ($14.19 million) from 10.62 million Swiss francs in 2019. This is mainly because the long-term incentives he received when he became Novart's chief executive in February 2018 far exceeded those he received when he became Novart's director of research and development.These large grants will be re-evaluated this year. But the long-term incentives that Narasimhan has received will double to CHF 8.05 million in 2020, up 126 per cent from CHF 4.02 million in 2019. (Sina Pharmaceutical News): Novartis CEO's 2020 pay drops to $11.6M, no thanks to COVID-19's drag on sales