Pfizer (PFE) Gives Former CEO Big Compensation Hug

Former Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) CEO Kindler got a big compensation hug for 2010, including a compensation package valued at close to $22 million when he left the company in defeat.

Kindler received a 60 percent increase last year over his 2009 compensation, according to an Associated Press analysis of a Pfizer regulatory filing Tuesday.

The New York-based drugmaker gave Kindler a salary and performance-related bonus totaling $4.9 million, a $4.5 million severance payment and more than $12 million in stock and option awards. The company also will continue his health coverage for 12 months "at active employee rates," the filing said.

That compensation total does not include a retirement benefit valued at about $6.9 million that the former CEO had accumulated.

Kindler was ousted by Pfizer's board unexpectedly Dec. 6 after four years of languishing share prices and several failures of promising drugs in late testing, including a successor to cholesterol fighter Lipitor, the world's top-selling drug. Pfizer will lose U.S. patent protection in November for Lipitor.

Pfizer closed Tuesday at $19.94, down $0.03, or 0.18 percent.





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