On one hand, Sanofi-Aventis will pay the outgoing ceo less severance than he was entitled to receive - $3.9 million, which is half the ‘termination benefit,’ given his “limited amount of time” running the drugmaker, according to a statement.

Nonetheless, Gerard, who will step down on December 1, is still in line to receive at least $11.4 million thanks to a combination of salary, termination payments and continued advisory fees from the start of this year until his contractual obligations end in 2011.

Such as? He will get his basic salary until December, which amounted to $1.85 million last year, and $142,000 a month until December 2010 in exchange for not taking on a role with a competitor. Then there’s another $71,000 a month until May 2011 as a scientific adviser. Gerard also gets to keep his stock options and maybe a performance-related bonus. All this for doing a job deemed not so great.

Meanwhile, his successor, Glaxo’s Chris Viehbacher, will get a fixed salary of about $1.7 million; a performance-related bonus that raise that amount by 150 per cent, but rising to 200 per cent or more “in the case of exceptional performance;” $3.1 million for showing up to work on his first day; 65,000 Sanofi shares worth about $4.5 million and 200,000 stock options.