View from City Road: Medeva writes an odd prescription

Medeva's decision to take on two departing leading lights as expensive consultants leaves a nasty taste in the mouth.

Bernard Taylor, the drug group's chairman, insists that Medeva has reached the stage where there is insufficient acquisition work to keep the two men fully employed. Yet he also acknowledges that the deal they have been given is comparable to their former salaries.

Shareholders can be forgiven if they fail to grasp the logic behind paying someone as much to work part-time on contract as full-time as an employee - especially since if they are responsible for successful acquisitions by Medeva they may end up with even bigger amounts.

But then perhaps the explanation has something to do with the fact that the two men, who came under severe criticism from shareholders following Medeva's fall from grace, will get only pounds 30,000 apiece as compensation for loss of office. A trifling figure by recent standards, but presumably tax-efficient.