The drugmaker’s former ceo, who retired last year but remains chairman received total compensation valued at $20.09 million in 2007, his last year at the helm, amounting to a 9 percent raise, the Associated Press reports.

Despite repeated rejections and delays in winning FDA approval, Bob received a base salary of $1.73 million in 2007, up 4 percent from the prior year. He received no bonus, but got $3.2 million from Wyeth’s nonstock incentive plan. Then there were restricted stock shares and options awarded him last April, when the company valued them at $14.93 million.

Essner also received perks and other compensation totaling $232,057, including $95,246 for the use of a corporate jet, $15,096 for personal auto use, $51,855 in company matches to two retirement plans, $39,460 for legal fees regarding ending his employment and $13,139 for reimbursement of taxes he paid, according to the proxy filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Meanwhile, Bernard Poussot, who was promoted to ceo, received compensation totaling $11.85 million in 2007. His salary was $1.05 million, and last April, Wyeth gave him restricted stock and options it valued at $8.54 million. Poussot got $2 million from Wyeth’s nonstock incentive plan, plus $263,845 in other compensation, including $173,770 for corporate aircraft use, $5,596 for personal auto use, $50,165 for reimbursement of taxes he paid and $31,512 in matching contributions to two retirement plans.

The Associated Press calculations of total pay include executives salary, bonus, incentives, perks, above-market returns on deferred compensation - which Wyeth didn’t give either exec - and the estimated value of stock options and awards granted during the year. The calculations don’t include changes in the present value of pension benefits, and they sometimes differ from the totals companies list in the summary compensation table of proxy statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The proxy states that Wyeth bases compensation for top execs such as stock awards and cash incentives on performance of the company on targets such as revenues, earnings per share and regulatory approvals, as well as the individual executive’s performance and changes in stock price.

Under Essner, Wyeth boosted sales by about one-third and whittled down the $20 billion-plus litigation over two former diet drugs. Last year, the company posted a 10 percent increase in net income, to $4.62 billion; revenues also grew 10 percent, to $22.4 billion, and six products had sales of $1 billion or more, the AP writes.

But since April, the FDA on four occasions rejected approval of a drug, demanded additional info or required an entire new study, significantly delaying expected launches of heavily touted new products. Meanwhile, Wyeth is forecasting flat sales and has said about 5 percent of its 50,000 employees will lose their jobs, with more cuts to follow.

Stockholders voting at Wyeth’s annual meeting on April 24 will face two shareholder proposals, both opposed by management. One calls for periodic reports on all company political contributions (something AstraZeneca yesterday agreed to post on its web site). And the other urges adopting a bylaw to enable the company to recoup unearned incentive bonuses and payments to senior executives later found not to have met their performance goals.

Source: The Associated Press