Roby Tschopp, head of shareholder group Actares, had described the pay-off as "scandalous".
BBC: Novartis scraps payout to departing boss Daniel Vasella
2.
Mr Tschopp and his committee are already looking into a quite separate allegation that the Swiss spymaster had links with a biological and chemical weapons programme built up by South Africa's apartheid regime.
ECONOMIST: Switzerland
3.
Even sceptics of the story about a covert army, such as the vice-president of the Swiss parliament's supervisory commission, Peter Tschopp, are convinced that senior officials are trying to cover up something more serious than a case of fraud.