Chris Viehbacher leaving Sanofi without a U.S.-style windfall

Former Sanofi CEO Chris Viehbacher

When a Big Pharma CEO falls from grace, people want to know how soft the landing might be. For the now-former chief of Sanofi ($SNY), Chris Viehbacher, there's plenty of money for a cushion, but it won't be nearly as plump as the packages granted to his counterparts in the U.S. Under Viehbacher's contract with Sanofi, he's eligible for 24 months' worth of fixed compensation, plus 24 months' worth of variable pay, based on his last batch of incentive compensation. With €1.26 million in base salary for 2014, plus €1.7 million in 2013 variable compensation, the 24-month package would be about €6 million or about $7.5 million. Bernstein analyst Tim Anderson, meanwhile, figures Sanofi would do well to look outside the company for its new CEO, like AstraZeneca ($AZN) did with its new-ish chief, Pascal Soriot. Well, Sanofi had a more literal view: The French drugmaker has contacted Soriot himself. As Bloomberg reports, Sanofi's board approached Soriot to see if he might be interested in the job. According to the news service's sources, Soriot wasn't. Report