There is no reliable, universal dollar benchmark for what a biotech CEO should earn at a company of a given size. Public companies build their own peer groups, weighing market value, revenue, headcount, commercial maturity and business scope, then compare pay components against those peers. The disclosed peer-group ranges below show how companies define “similar size”; they are not CEO-pay ranges.
Why company size alone does not produce a CEO-pay benchmark
“Similar size” can mean similar market capitalization, revenue, employee count or some combination. Those measures can point to different peers, particularly for a company whose pipeline is still developing or whose revenue is changing quickly. Public-company compensation committees may also consider whether the business sells products, its research and product scope, geography, organizational complexity and the talent market in which it competes.
Peer groups are company-specific and tied to particular compensation cycles. Their selection criteria are useful evidence about how a committee frames comparability, but they do not establish a sector-wide standard. A company may be close to peers on market capitalization and far from them on revenue or headcount.
How public biotech companies define their peers
The proxy disclosures below illustrate different approaches. They concern peer selection, not the amount of compensation CEOs received.
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| Company disclosure | Peer criteria or comparison | What the example shows |
|---|---|---|
| Company in a 2026 proxy, describing its 2025 compensation peer group 2026 proxy | Generally $800 million–$7.3 billion in market capitalization, $220 million–$2 billion in annual revenue, and 225–2,000 employees; peers were public commercial biopharmaceutical companies with products on the market. | It combined financial scale, headcount and commercial status. In 2025, the company reported being at the 44th percentile for peer revenue, 52nd percentile for market capitalization and 58th percentile for headcount. |
| Immunocore, 2026 proxy describing criteria selected in September 2024 for fiscal 2025 compensation decisions 2026 proxy | U.S. or U.K. public biotech or pharmaceutical companies, 175–1,500 employees and $600 million–$6.0 billion in market capitalization; the comparison was against Immunocore’s projected revenue of about $300 million. | Geography and a revenue reference point were considered alongside market value and employee count. The company said peer information was one input, not a direct determinant of each pay element. |
| BeiGene, 2025 proxy discussing its 2024 peer criteria 2025 proxy | Market capitalization between 0.33 and 3 times BeiGene’s, with comparable scope and complexity, R&D and commercialization. Revenue was secondary because it can lag development. | For a company with a changing pipeline and scale, development and business scope can make a simple revenue match misleading. The filing said BeiGene was near the peer median in market capitalization and estimated revenue when the 2025 peer group was approved. |
| Biogen, 2026 proxy 2026 proxy | Peer selection considered business scope, revenue and market capitalization, global reach, a research-based business with multiple marketed products, and competition for talent. | Biogen reviewed its 2025 group in October 2025 and modified it for 2026 compensation decisions to better align with its size, revenue and market capitalization. |
These figures belong to the named companies’ peer-selection methods and stated periods. They cannot be combined into one standard size band for biotech firms.
Which compensation figures can be compared fairly?
A headline total can obscure what a CEO was actually paid in cash and what depended on equity value. A useful comparison separates the following measures:
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- Base salary: the fixed cash component.
- Annual cash incentive: distinguish the target opportunity from the amount actually paid.
- Equity awards: identify grant-date value and whether awards are one-time, new-hire or recurring when the proxy provides that information.
- Total compensation: state whether the figure is target pay, the amount reported in the Summary Compensation Table, realized compensation or realizable compensation.
These are not interchangeable measures. Grant-date equity value, for example, is not the same as what an executive later realizes. Amgen says it reviews CEO realized and realizable compensation and gathers peer CEO compensation-element data from SEC filings. Its 2026 proxy describes comparisons at the 25th, 50th and 75th percentiles. Amgen 2026 proxy
How committees use percentile data
A percentile locates a company or pay figure within a selected peer distribution; it does not prescribe what a CEO must earn. Amgen describes using 25th-, 50th- and 75th-percentile data, while also allowing its committee to account for role scope and impact, organizational structure, experience, performance, tenure, strategic importance, internal equity and market demand.
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Immunocore likewise characterizes peer information as a market check considered with other factors, not a direct formula for every element of compensation. Its proxy states: “Instead, the remuneration committee considers peer data as part of a market-check analysis that is used in conjunction with its assessments of numerous other factors, as noted under ‘Factors Used in Determining Executive Compensation’ below.” Immunocore 2026 proxy
That discretion matters when interpreting a pay figure. A company can use a peer median as context while setting a particular CEO’s salary, bonus or equity award above or below it for reasons tied to the role, the executive or the business.
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Dates and cohort fit are essential
Peer groups and company metrics are tied to defined dates and periods. Amgen’s 2026 proxy, for example, describes financial references including 12-month average market capitalization as of June 30, 2024, and trailing-four-quarter revenue through March 31, 2024, with a stated exception for Sanofi. Those dates are part of the comparison, not incidental detail. Amgen 2026 proxy
When reviewing a claimed peer comparison, record the fiscal year of the pay, when the peer group was selected, the measurement date for market capitalization, the revenue period and whether headcount is measured at year-end or another point. Also check whether the companies match in commercial status, pipeline and product scope, geography, CEO role and tenure. A company can be a close market-cap match but a weak operating or talent-market match.
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A practical way to assess a biotech CEO-pay comparison
- Define the cohort. Specify the size band and geography, and say whether the intended peers are public companies, commercial biopharma businesses or development-stage biotechs.
- Show the operating fit. Compare market capitalization, revenue, headcount, development and commercial maturity, product and pipeline scope, business complexity and global reach. Identify mismatches rather than describing the companies as simply the same size.
- Align the pay measure and year. Compare salary with salary, target cash with target cash, and equity on the same valuation basis. Label reported, realized and realizable totals distinctly.
- Include the dates and exceptions. Note the proxy year, compensation year, peer-group selection or revision date, financial measurement periods, CEO tenure and any disclosed one-time or new-hire awards.
- Read the committee’s explanation. Peer percentiles are context; consider the company’s stated reasons for departing from them or weighing other factors.
What the available disclosures do—and do not—establish
The cited proxies demonstrate how individual companies choose peers and interpret compensation data. They do not provide a harmonized statistic for median biotech CEO compensation among companies of a defined similar size. The ranges in the peer table are selection criteria, and the reported percentiles describe a company’s position within its own cohort; neither is a pay benchmark.
For a later compensation year, use the company’s latest proxy and preserve the fiscal-year and measurement dates it reports. A meaningful dollar comparison requires comparable companies and like-for-like pay measures, not a single size label.
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