AstraZeneca’s Pascal Soriot says new rise in pay is ‘really about’ potential successor

As­traZeneca CEO Pas­cal So­ri­ot vig­or­ous­ly de­fend­ed his re­cent­ly se­cured $23.5 mil­lion pay pack­age, cit­ing the UK phar­ma’s need to com­pete for tal­ent.

“It re­al­ly is about mak­ing the com­pa­ny com­pet­i­tive and at­trac­tive for my suc­ces­sor,” So­ri­ot said dur­ing the com­pa­ny’s first-quar­ter earn­ings call with the press. “I in­tend to be here for a while but, of course, at some point, there will be a suc­ces­sor,” he added.

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