Novartis shareholders approve all proposals at AGM
Published: Tuesday, Mar 5th 2024, 15:50
Retour au fil d'actualité
At the Annual General Meeting on Tuesday, Novartis shareholders approved all the proposals put forward by the Board of Directors. These included the 27th consecutive dividend increase. For 2023, the pharmaceutical company will pay CHF 3.30 per share, compared to CHF 3.20 in the previous year.
In addition, Jörg Reinhardt was re-elected as Chairman of the Board of Directors at the meeting in Basel. The same applies to all other current members of the Supervisory Board.
Shareholders criticized the salary of CEO Vas Narasimhan. The Novartis CEO's pay almost doubled last year: he received total remuneration of CHF 16.2 million for 2023, compared to CHF 8.5 million in the previous year. The basic salary increased only minimally to 1.82 million. The variable salary components were significantly higher.
It is legitimate to discuss remuneration, said Chairman of the Board of Directors Jörg Reinhardt in his response. Novartis is "trying to strike a balance" on this issue, he said. Remuneration excesses such as those in the USA are not desirable. "Nevertheless, we must choose a level of remuneration that enables us to remain internationally competitive when it comes to attracting the best people," said Reinhardt.
During the panel discussion, CEO Narasimhan once again emphasized that the focus on four core therapeutic areas should have a positive impact on growth and profitability. Novartis continues to strive to invest 19 to 20 percent of sales in research and development, which corresponds to a value of around USD 9 billion.
Despite the numerous additional acquisitions in the past, the company's own research pipeline is also very successful, emphasized Narasimhan. According to him, around 65 percent of research candidates come from the company's own laboratories.
President Reinhardt added that Novartis had brought more medicines onto the market in recent years than almost any other company. However, these were not always blockbuster drugs with sales in the billions.
©Keystone/SDA
French 
English 
German 
Spanish 
Arabic