The £168MILLION man: That’s how a lot AstraZeneca boss Pascal Soriot has been paid in 14 years on the high

Astrazeneca boss Pascal Soriot was handed his largest ever pay package last year – taking his total earnings at the pharma giant to £168million.

The 66-year-old, who has transformed the group into the most valuable company on the London stock market and a titan of the global drugs industry since taking the reins in 2012, was paid £17.7million in 2025.

That was up from £16.6million the previous year and his biggest haul so far, according to Astrazeneca’s annual report.

The payout included cash bonuses and share awards of £15.8million on top of a base salary of £1.9million.

But it was lower than the potential maximum payout of £25million which Soriot could have received if he had hit certain targets and increased the share price by a set amount.

Details of the multi-million pay packet came as shares in Astrazeneca hover close to record highs – valuing it at £238billion.

Under his leadership, the stock has risen more than five-fold, adding £192billion to its market value.

‘Soriot has revitalised Astrazeneca since taking the reins in 2012 and the strategy has led to the group becoming a powerful and leading force,’ said Richard Hunter, head of markets at Interactive Investor.

‘With sales in the key oncology unit continuing to grow and with the overall target of £80billion of annual revenue by 2030 still on track, the group continues to thrive under his leadership.’

Earlier this month, Astrazeneca reported strong results for 2025, with profits up 43 per cent alongside a 9 per cent increase in revenues boosted by sales of its cancer drugs.

The success has made Soriot one of the best-paid bosses in Britain – though this has not gone without criticism.

‘The consistently extreme levels of pay awarded to Astrazeneca’s CEO are symptomatic of a growing trend in the FTSE 100,’ said Andrew Speke of the High Pay Centre think tank.

‘While overall levels of inequality between workers and executives have somewhat stabilised in recent years, larger constituents with a bigger international footprint increasingly appear to be paying their bosses US scale pay packages.

‘Regardless of whether one thinks big pharma serves a public good, very few people would agree that any CEO deserves to be paid over 400 times the pay of a typical UK worker.’

Investors at the company have rebelled against its executive compensation plans several times despite its improving financial performance over the years.

And there are concerns that Soriot is looking to pivot Astrazeneca away from the UK and could even move the company’s listing away from the London Stock Exchange in what would be a devastating blow to the City.

These worries have increased over the past year as the firm announced a series of multi-billion pound deals in the US and China, its two major markets.

Earlier this month AstraZeneca’s shares rallied when they made their debut on the New York Stock Exchange, fuelling fears it could eventually quit London.

The listing followed an announcement from the company last year that it would upgrade its US-listed shares to put them on an equal footing with those in London, while Soriot has poured fuel on concerns of a British exit by boasting the company is ‘very American’.

The firm has also been increasingly pulling back spending in the UK, with AstraZeneca scrapping plans for a £450million vaccine factory in Liverpool last January following a row with Labour of state support for the site.

In September, the company also announced it was pausing plans for a £200milion investment in its Cambridge research site in another blow to Britain’s pharmaceuticals sector.