By Mariam Sunny
(Reuters) -U.S. drugmakers Johnson & Johnson and Eli Lilly increased spending on security for their top executives in 2024, with both citing increased threats after a UnitedHealth insurance executive was murdered outside the company’s investor meeting in December, regulatory filings show.
J&J is now providing executives with an armed driver, and both pharmaceutical companies have given executives home protection and a security detail for travel, according to their annual proxy statements. In previous years, those filings did not contain such specific details; this marks the first time Lilly has made security disclosures in its proxy.
Brian Thompson, the former CEO of UnitedHealth Group’s insurance unit UnitedHealthcare, was shot dead on December 4 outside a Midtown Manhattan hotel where the company was holding an investor conference. The killing prompted companies to reassess whether the risk of targeted violence against top management had increased.
J&J’s executives are now required to use an armed driver and a secure company vehicle for all travel after an internal security assessment conducted in December due to “increased threats,” according to its regulatory filing, released Wednesday. The company did not respond to Reuters when asked if they made the review after Thompson’s murder.
The New Brunswick, New Jersey-based company quadrupled its security spending for 2024, even though the dollar figure is relatively small at nearly $103,000 for CEO Joaquin Duato’s personal and home security services.
Between 2020 and 2024, expenses for a company car and driver were capped below $25,000 and it reimbursed “limited home security system-related fees” in prior years.
Similarly, Lilly introduced security services for top executives in 2024 for the first time, its regulatory filing showed on Friday. “These (security) costs are appropriate and necessary considering the current threat landscape,” the company said.
Lilly spent $73,630 for security services for CEO David Ricks in 2024, the first time it has disclosed such costs in its proxy. The Indianapolis-based company did not respond to a request for comment.
Shortly after Thompson’s murder, health insurers removed pictures of their executives from corporate websites. In January, organizers at a major San Francisco healthcare meeting stepped up security for attendees inside and outside the venue.
In previous years, companies in the healthcare and pharmaceuticals sectors have generally compensated the use of private jets and limited compensation related to security, according to older filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
(Reporting by Mariam Sunny in Bengaluru; Editing by Manas Mishra, Caroline Humer, David Gaffen and Alan Barona)
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