Pay packages for Amgen executives fell in 2007

LOS ANGELES, April 1 (Reuters) - Executives at Amgen Inc (AMGN.O) saw their pay packages fall last year, at the same time the biotechnology company's stock price dived and safety concerns trimmed sales of its flagship anemia drugs.

Chief Executive Kevin Sharer earned a total of $19.9 million in 2007, down 17 percent from a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing on Tuesday.

Sharer's base salary rose slightly year-over-year, but stock awards and incentive plan compensation fell sharply.

Roger Perlmutter, the company's head of research and development, saw his total compensation fall 53 percent to $4.7 million last year.

The 2007 pay package for George Morrow, head of global commercial operations, fell 59 percent to $3.6 million.

Amgen's shares, which were up 16 cents at $41.94 in late trading on Nasdaq, have fallen nearly 40 percent since last May when federal regulators convened an initial panel of experts to review studies showing that treatment with anemia drugs, including Amgen's top-selling Aranesp, raised the risk of death for some cancer patients. (Reporting by Deena Beasley; Editing by Braden Reddall)