Pfizer’s Ian Read was the highest-paid chief executive officer at a large pharmaceutical company last year, as US top managers remained on average much better paid than their European counterparts.

New York-based Pfizer increased Read’s remuneration 2.5 percent to $25.6 million in 2012, while Novo Nordisk’s Lars Rebien Soerensen was the lowest-paid CEO, with $5 million, Sam Fazeli, a London-based analyst for Bloomberg Industries, wrote in a note yesterday.

The median pay of CEOs leading large pharmaceutical companies in the US was $17.2 million last year, 85 percent more than the $9.3 million European average, according to the analyst.

“Despite the fact that there’s a lot of noise in Europe” on top-management remuneration, “we’re actually paying less for management teams, by the look of 2012,” Fazeli said in a telephone interview.

“US CEOs are paid more. If you want to be competitive, then you’ve got to be competitive,” he said.