Company: ABBV
Filing Date: 2025-03-24
Form Type: DEF 14A
Source: 0001558370-25-003537
Chunk: 31

Company: AbbVie Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-03-24
Form: DEF 14A
Chunk 31
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Compensation Benchmarking.” After this benchmark review, the committee establishes NEO compensation—base salary adjustments, annual incentive awards, and long-term incentive awards—relative to the peer median in each instance. Awards can be differentiated from the peer compensation levels based on company performance, each NEO’s individual performance, leadership, and contributions to AbbVie’s business and strategic performance. COMPENSATION BENCHMARKING To provide the appropriate context for executive pay decisions, the committee, in consultation with its independent compensation consultant, assesses the compensation practices and pay levels of AbbVie’s Health Care Peer Group. The committee chooses to focus on the Health Care Peer Group because its constituents share important characteristics with AbbVie, particularly the global emphasis on research-based pharmaceuticals and biopharmaceutical therapies and the regulatory environment within which they operate. Members of the Health Care Peer Group are AbbVie’s primary competitors for executive talent and are companies the committee believes chiefly represent our competitive market:

|                              | ​ |
| Health Care Peer Group       |   |
| Amgen, Inc.                  |   |
| Bristol-Myers Squibb Company |   |
| Eli Lilly and Company        | ​ |
| Gilead Sciences, Inc.        | ​ |
| GlaxoSmithKline plc          | ​ |
| Johnson & Johnson            | ​ |
| Merck & Company, Inc.        | ​ |
| Novartis AG                  | ​ |
| Pfizer Inc.                  | ​ |

ROLE OF THE COMPENSATION CONSULTANT The compensation committee has engaged Semler Brossy as its independent compensation consultant. The committee’s independent consultant reports directly to the chair of the committee. The consultant meets regularly, and as needed, with the committee in executive sessions, has direct access to the chair during and between meetings, and performs no other services for AbbVie or its senior executives. In partnership with the consultant, the committee determines what variables it will consider, which include: peer groups against which performance and pay should be examined, metrics to be used to assess AbbVie’s performance, competitive incentive practices in the marketplace, and compensation levels relative to market benchmarks.

40 | 2025 Proxy Statement

| ​ | ​                      |
| ​ | EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION |

COMPENSATION RISK OVERSIGHT The company has established, and the compensation committee endorses, several controls to address and mitigate compensation-related risk, such as employing a diverse set of performance metrics, maintaining robust stock ownership guidelines for its executives and non- employee directors