Allergan Gives CEO $32.8 Million Pay Package for 2017

(Bloomberg) -- Allergan Plc Chief Executive Officer Brent Saunders received $32.8 million of compensation for 2017, a year when shares of the drugmaker slumped.

Saunders was awarded $22.7 million of restricted stock, a biennial grant, about three-quarters of which will vest only if the company meets goals for shareholder return as well as research and development milestones, according to a regulatory filing Tuesday.

Saunders, 48, also got $8.75 million in cash bonuses, partly tied to stock return goals and cost savings achieved in the years following the company's 2014 acquisition of Forest Laboratories Inc. The board boosted his base salary 26 percent to $1.3 million.

Shares of Madison, New Jersey-based Allergan tumbled 22 percent in 2017, compared with a 20 percent increase for the S&P 500 Health Care Index.

--With assistance from Jenn Zhao

To contact the reporter on this story: Anders Melin in New York at amelin3@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Pierre Paulden at ppaulden@bloomberg.net, Peter Eichenbaum, Dan Reichl

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