Greater Boston’s life sciences executives collected eye-popping pay in 2025, even as the sector cooled and thousands of workers were handed pink slips. From Cambridge to Marlborough, CEO pay packages ran from the single-digit millions to well north of $20 million, largely powered by stock awards and performance incentives. All of it played out during an industry slowdown that cost thousands of local employees their jobs in 2025.
Top Life Sciences Chief Cleared $23 Million
Boston Scientific’s chairman and CEO Michael F. Mahoney reported $23,532,050 in total compensation for 2025, according to Boston Scientific. The filing shows that most of that haul came in the form of stock awards and a performance cash bonus. That level of pay puts Mahoney at the top of the Massachusetts life sciences compensation charts for the year.
What the Big-Name CEOs Took Home
Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel’s total compensation for 2025 came in at $19,932,217, according to Moderna. Vertex CEO Reshma Kewalramani reported $21,144,261 for the same year, per Vertex. In both cases, proxy disclosures show that stock grants and performance-based restricted stock units made up the bulk of those packages.
Most Pay Packages Rose in 2025
The majority of compensation packages for Boston’s top life sciences chiefs increased in 2025, according to reporting by the Boston Business Journal. That analysis, based on SEC proxy filings from the region’s largest employers, found that corporate boards leaned into equity-heavy pay as a way to tie compensation more closely to long-term performance. The shift boosted headline totals even at companies that were cutting staff or tightening budgets.
Sky-High Pay, Deep Layoffs
At the same time, more than 4,600 Massachusetts life sciences employees lost their jobs over the course of 2025, a tally reported by NBC Boston from Boston Business Journal data. Boston Scientific’s proxy also discloses a CEO-to-median-employee pay ratio of roughly 348 to 1 for 2025, underscoring the gap between executive compensation and typical worker pay in the sector. That split has drawn scrutiny from labor advocates and some investors who question whether large equity grants are appropriate while companies are shrinking payrolls.
For Boston, the pay and layoff numbers highlight a core tension in its life sciences economy: outsize rewards for a small group of executives while many rank-and-file workers face layoffs and hiring freezes. Investors and local leaders will be watching in 2026 to see whether corporate boards adjust their compensation playbooks as the sector stabilizes.
