Two top executives at pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline are being offered handsome retention packages to stay with the company, according to media reports.
The Sunday Times of London and the London Telegraph reported that Chris Viehbacher and David Stout were offered $2 million each plus seats on the board of directors.
The offers come as GSK (NYSE: GSK) is launching plans to lay off thousands of employees as part of a restructuring and continues to combat negative news reports about some of its drugs. Some employees in the Triangle area have already received layoff notices.
The latest news Sunday was a report linking GSK’s diabetes drug Avandia with increased risk of osteoporosis. Avandia also has been criticized as posing an increased heart-attack risk for people taking the drug.
Viehbacher, president of Glaxo’s U.S. pharmaceutical business, and David Stout, president of pharmaceutical operations, were passed over when Andrew Witty was named CEO in October. Witty will take over the CEO position next year from Jean-Pierre Garnier.
In North Carolina, Viehbacher is a board member of the CEO Roundtable on Cancer, North Carolina Citizens for Business and Industry, the North Carolina GlaxoSmithKline Foundation and Triangle United Way.
Both newspapers said the retention packages have already been submitted to shareholders for approval.
GSK, which employs some 6,000 in the Triangle, is based in the United Kingdom and has two U.S. headquarters, one in RTP, the other in Philadelphia.
