BOSSES of pharmaceuticals company GlaxoSmithKline headed off a rebellion over the company's executive pay packages last night.

Glaxo chairman Sir Christopher Hogg said that although final figures were unavailable, at least 85 per cent of shareholders' votes cast were in favour of the company's remuneration report, while votes cast on all other resolutions exceeded 95 per cent.

Investors rejected last year's remuneration report amid opposition to the proposed pay package of chief executive Jean-Pierre Garnier, who saw his salary rise by 13 per cent to near £2.8m.

The protests over so-called fat cat pay was one of the biggest shareholder rebellions in British corporate history.

The group, which employs 1,170 staff in Barnard Castle, County Durham, bowed to pressure from shareholders at the end of last year and scrapped two-year rolling contracts for executive directors, replacing them with one-year deals without compensation.

This year's remuneration report was also opposed by lobby group Pensions and Investment Research Consultants and the trade union Amicus, whose officials staged a protest outside yesterday's annual meeting in London.

Some shareholders at the meeting said salary and benefits packages made by the company to its directors demonstrated "greed and avarice".

One shareholder said he believed excessive pay rewards made to a handful of people in the City were completely unjustified and were ruining social cohesiveness.

He said: "I just gawp at the amount of money that is slushing around because no one has the guts to get up and say enough is enough.''

Another shareholder criticised Glaxo for excluding elements such as exchange rates and competition from producers of generic drugs from the criteria used to calculate executive bonuses for superior performance.

But Sir Christopher said the company believed its executive pay policy was justified.