How Allergan's Former CEO Reaped a Fortune

David Pyott cashed in on a half billion dollars-worth of stock options and shares amid the company's $66 billion sale to Actavis.

Chris Newmarker

Was it a golden parachute? It may have been more like a bejeweled, platinum-encrusted parachute for David Pyott as he exited Allergan last month amid its $66 billion sale to Actavis.

A filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange commission shows Pyott spent his St. Patrick's Day by cashing in on about 3 million stock options, to the tune of at least $467 million. He sold another 285,233 shares of stock for $36.9 million.

That's about a half billion dollars for Pyott.

The sale to Dublin, Ireland-based Actavis marked Pyott's exit from Allergan, which he has been CEO of since 1998. BIOtechNOW described him as one of the longest tenured pharma CEOs.

Allergan, which makes everything from tissue expanders and silicone breast implants to Botox, is expected to operate out of New Jersey, with its Irvine, CA, facility remaining as the company's specialty drug hub, according to the Orange County Business Journal.

Allergan may be known more as a pharmaceutical company, but Qmed's sister publication MD+DI has ranked it as the 15^th largest medical device company in the world. 

The deal has been one of the most significant of the past year. It eclipses Medtronic's $43 billion purchase of Covidien in the medical device sector, as well as Comcast's proposed $45 billion purchase of Time Warner Cable and AT&T's proposed $48.5 billion acquisition of DirecTV.

As for Pyott, he is among the top talent Royal Philips is tapping as it focuses more on what it is calling HealthTech. The Dutch multinational recently announced that Pyott is joining its supervisory board.

Chris Newmarker is senior editor of Qmed and MPMN. Follow him on Twitter at @newmarker.

Like what you're reading? Subscribe to our daily e-newsletter.