2023 - Pharmacist Digest

STAT+: Prices for 5 drugs were hiked without proof of new benefits, costing the U.S. $815M in 2023, report finds

STAT

DECEMBER 12, 2024

During 2023, drugmakers substantially raised prices on five widely used medicines without any new clinical evidence to justify the increases, leading patients and health insurers in the U.S. to spend an additional $815 million last year, according to a new report.

Drug Pricing

Here are the worst biopharma CEOs of 2023

STAT

DECEMBER 19, 2023

If David Ricks is the best biopharma CEO of 2023 , then Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla is, unfortunately, the worst. Pfizer is this year’s anti-Eli Lilly. My annual Worst Biopharma CEO list is typically populated with blockheads and scoundrels. That’s not why Bourla is here. The reason is accountability.

STAT+: Health care CEOs dialed back their pay in 2023. They still made $3.5 billion

STAT

SEPTEMBER 30, 2024

Health care stocks stumbled compared with the rest of the market in 2023. Even in a down year, the median health care CEO made 51 times the median American household income, which was around $81,000 in 2023. Companies missed their profit targets. Some CEOs even lost their bonuses. But the biggest names in health care still made $3.5

Pharmaceutical Companies

Pharmaceutical Companies Pharmaceutical Companies Hospitals

Childhood vaccination coverage was falling across the globe even before Covid

STAT

JUNE 24, 2025

The study, which estimated childhood vaccination coverage between 1980 and 2023 in 204 countries and territories, found that the Covid-19 pandemic significantly intensified existing immunization challenges. Read the rest…

Vaccines

Vaccines Immunity Immunization

Health data breaches hit an all-time high in 2023

STAT

DECEMBER 21, 2023

It’s the standard notice many health care organizations are required to provide when your protected health information gets exposed — and in 2023, data leaks, hacks, and mishandling led more of them to be delivered than ever before.

HIPAA

STAT+: Here are the best biopharma CEOs of 2023

STAT

DECEMBER 18, 2023

Let’s get right to the main course: David Ricks of Eli Lilly is the runaway, rock star, who-else-could-it-be Best Biopharma CEO of 2023. More on those high-achieving folks later. What an incredible year it’s been for Ricks and the Lilly executive team who helped him achieve so much.

Substance use stayed at high levels in 2023, while vaping increased and smoking fell

STAT

JULY 30, 2024

Rates of mental illness and substance use remained largely stable in 2023, according to federal data, underscoring the severity of the long-running U.S. mental health crisis and worst-in-the-world rates of illicit drug use. And while overall rates of nicotine use also remained roughly even, the way people consumed it shifted slightly.

STAT+: The biggest health care deals of 2023

STAT

DECEMBER 17, 2023

That trend of vertical integration was on full display in 2023, a year when the country’s biggest pharmacy chain bought a primary care provider, and the biggest private insurer branched further into home health. Companies that were once just insurers or just pharmacies are tacking on new business lines.

Hospitals

The 2023 PharmaVoice 100

PharmaVoice

SEPTEMBER 19, 2023

This year’s honorees are influential and devoted leaders lifting the pillars of the industry to new heights.

STAT+: UnitedHealth cuts profit outlook by $3 billion as more Medicare patients get care

STAT

APRIL 17, 2025

That is similar to what the company has been saying since June 2023. The higher use of care among these Medicare enrollees “was most notable within physician and outpatient services,” UnitedHealth said in its first-quarter earnings release.

STAT+: The health tech tracker for 2023’s first quarter: 12 industry events to watch

STAT

JANUARY 4, 2023

Continuing economic uncertainty and the threat of a recession are casting a pall over health tech in 2023 — a dramatic shift for an industry that enjoyed abundant funding in the pandemic’s early stages.

2023 Nobel Prize winner: Physics award goes to trio for electron breakthroughs

STAT

OCTOBER 3, 2023

LONDON — Three scientists whose work on electrons widened the world’s understanding of the particles’ behavior inside atoms and molecules won the 2023 Nobel Prize in physics on Tuesday.

STAT+: Cancer therapy’s new ‘gold rush’: bispecific antibodies that hit key combination of targets

STAT

JANUARY 22, 2025

Merck’s Keytruda has been used against dozens of different cancers in millions of patients, making it the top-selling drug in the world, with over $25 billion in revenue in 2023. Opdivo, from Bristol Myers Squibb, earned $10 billion in 2023.

Immunity

Immunity Immunization Compounding Drug Development

STAT+: FDA tells drugmakers to redo studies run by a contract research firm due to data integrity issues

STAT

APRIL 4, 2025

During an April 2023 inspection at Raptim facilites in Nava Mumbai, India, FDA inspectors found “objectionable conditions” that led them to conclude the company falsified data in testing for multiple subjects and samples across multiple studies, according to a letter sent last week to the pharmaceutical companies.

Pharmaceutical Companies

Pharmaceutical Companies Pharmaceutical Companies

STAT+: Class action suit over UnitedHealth’s AI care denials nears key moment

STAT

FEBRUARY 7, 2025

It was first filed in 2023 after a series of STAT stories revealed the company’s practices. District Court in Minnesota, alleges that UnitedHealth and its subsidiary NaviHealth relied on flawed algorithms to cut off essential rehabilitative care to sick and injured Medicare Advantage beneficiaries.

Communication

Communication Hospitals

2023 Nobel Prize in chemistry: Trio win for quantum dots discoveries that revolutionized nanotechnology

STAT

OCTOBER 4, 2023

LONDON — The 2023 Nobel Prize in chemistry was awarded Wednesday to three scientists for the discovery and synthesis of quantum dots, tiny particles that have fueled innovations in nanotechnology from televisions to mapping different tissues in the body.

STAT+: Tennessee officials find Express Scripts violated law governing commercial pharmacy claims

STAT

APRIL 13, 2025

For the moment, the state has not fined the company, although it may yet do so, according to a consent order. A department spokesperson declined to comment. However, the audit was released two months after Express Scripts had been ordered to pay a $250,000 fine for failing to reimburse a pharmacy.

Specialty Pharmacies

Specialty Pharmacies Documentation Drug Pricing

Opinion: Want to keep schools safe? Hire more nurses

STAT

FEBRUARY 6, 2025

Even worse, 9% of 9th through 12th graders attempted suicide in 2023, reflecting our nationwide teen mental health crisis. Youth depression has practically doubled over the past decade. Read the rest…

Listen: 2023 in review, CEO report cards, and a look at the year ahead

STAT

DECEMBER 21, 2023

It’s our last episode of 2023, so we look back on the biggest stories of the year, discuss the best and worst CEOs in the industry, and make some reasonably informed guesses on what 2024 has in store for the drug industry. And can you go to too many J.P. Morgan parties?

Opinion: FDA cuts may mean even less oversight of pet food

STAT

APRIL 4, 2025

The resulting pet food industry is massive — Americans spent $65 billion on pet food and treats in 2023 alone. More than 102 million U.S. households own a dog or a cat, and thousands more have fish, birds, or reptiles. Read the rest…

STAT+: Congress created a unique plan to save rural hospitals — but few are using it

STAT

MARCH 18, 2025

When Ted Matthews came out of retirement in early 2023 to retake the helm of the rural Texas hospital where he’d started his health care career, it was something of a rescue mission. And yet, just 38 hospitals have taken up the new designation since 2023, fewer than researchers had predicted.

Hospitals

Hospitals Inpatient

Private equity ‘gobbling’ up care facilities for people with disabilities

STAT

MARCH 18, 2025

However, between 2013 and 2023, private equity firms made over 1,000 acquisitions of disability and elder care providers — a likely undercount, according to the report published by the Private Equity Stakeholder Project, a nonprofit watchdog focused on the growing impact of the private equity industry.

Opinion: The kids’ doctors aren’t all right

STAT

MARCH 19, 2025

In 2024, about 8% of pediatrics positions went unfilled , an increase from about 3% in 2023. It also tells the rest of us what fields of medicine are having trouble attracting new physicians. Meanwhile, children’s hospitals report large numbers of vacancies in many pediatric subspecialties. All

Hospitals

Opinion: I’m the director of the Center for Medicare. Here’s how we executed the first round of drug price negotiation

STAT

OCTOBER 29, 2024

The first cycle of negotiations resulted in meaningful projected savings for Medicare and for people with Medicare — an estimated $6 billion for the program if the negotiated prices were in place in 2023 for the first 10 selected drugs, and $1.5

Drug Pricing

STAT+: Drug shortages reached a record high as 2023 drew to a close

STAT

APRIL 10, 2024

The number of ongoing and active drug shortages in the U.S. stood at 323 during the fourth quarter of last year — the highest figure reached since such data began being tracked in 2001 — underscoring growing concerns about patient harm across the country.

Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy Immunity Immunization

STAT+: UnitedHealth continues making stealthy deals, pushing deeper into medical care as scrutiny mounts

STAT

MARCH 7, 2025

And just like in 2023, UnitedHealth has prioritized outpatient surgery centers. The sprawling conglomerate — which owns a major health insurance company, physician practices, a pharmacy benefit manager, and numerous other firms — acquired or created more than 250 subsidiaries in 2024.

Health Insurance Companies

Health Insurance Companies Documentation Hospitals

STAT+: Pharmalittle: We’re reading about U.K. restricting Lilly’s obesity drug, pharma layoffs, and more

STAT

DECEMBER 5, 2024

pharmaceutical industry rose last month and, overall, the rate at which jobs have been shed this year continues to outpace what occurred in 2023 , according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, the outplacement and executive coaching firm. A The number of layoffs in the U.S.

Mayo Clinic’s partnership with dairy poses conflict of interest, critics say

STAT

MARCH 10, 2025

a nonprofit that drew $178 million in revenue in 2023, the latest year for which data are available, and spent half that money on marketing. Department of Agriculture and funded by dairy farmers and importers whose mission is to promote dairy consumption. It’s run by Dairy Management Inc.,

Mayo Clinic

Mayo Clinic Communication Hospitals

STAT+: AbbVie dramatically outspent its pharma company rivals in 2023 to promote its drugs to doctors

STAT

JULY 5, 2024

WASHINGTON — Pharmaceutical giant AbbVie paid health care providers roughly $145.7 million last year to promote its drugs, according to a STAT analysis of newly released government data.

Pharmaceutical Companies

Pharmaceutical Companies Pharmaceutical Companies Hospitals

STAT+: Net prices for medicines fell considerably in 2023’s last quarter, mostly thanks to Humira biosimilars

STAT

APRIL 1, 2024

The net prices that health plans paid for medicines — after subtracting rebates, discounts, and fees — fell by 2.8% in last year’s fourth quarter, the largest decline ever measured by SSR Health, a research firm that tracks the pharmaceutical industry and its pricing trends.

Biosimilars

STAT+: Health tech investments are picking up steam. Here are 5 VC leaders behind the biggest recent deals

STAT

OCTOBER 30, 2024

Health tech investments are showing signs of resilience following the perilous lows of 2022 and 2023: Just this past month, two startups that analysts believe might be getting ready for IPOs raised more than $100 million in late-stage funding rounds.

Diabetes

Opinion: Medicare Advantage is bad for patients and bad for investors

STAT

FEBRUARY 28, 2024

In 2023, enrollment in Medicare Advantage, the version of Medicare run by private insurers, surpassed 50% of eligible beneficiaries for the very first time. Companies like CVS Health and UnitedHealth Group saw losses of 5.2% respectively, while Humana, whose business model relies heavily on the MA program, fell an astonishing 14.2%.

STAT+: A U.K. trade group is due to lift its suspension of Novo Nordisk, but critics cite a lack of transparency

STAT

MARCH 10, 2025

The two-year suspension was issued on March 16, 2023, by the Association of British Pharmaceutical Industry after receiving a complaint alleging the company sponsored courses on weight management on LinkedIn for health professionals, without making clear that it was involved in the sponsorship.

Morning Rounds: How much did health care’s top-earning CEO make in 2023?

STAT

SEPTEMBER 30, 2024

Good morning! What would you buy if you earned $305 million in one year? Maybe I’d have a different color KitchenAid mixer for every season.

Opinion: The crucial Sickle Cell Data Collection program is in jeopardy

STAT

JUNE 11, 2025

In December 2023, a groundbreaking announcement grabbed headlines : After years of anticipation, the Food and Drug Administration approved the first gene therapies for treating sickle cell disease, offering hope of eliminating life-altering symptoms.

Antiviral used for mpox no better than placebo, NIH says

STAT

AUGUST 15, 2024

The results are notable because the drug, tecovirimat, has rarely been studied clinically for mpox, despite its sporadic use over the years in parts of Africa and its wider use during the 2022 and 2023 outbreaks in the U.S. and Europe. Read the rest…

Opinion: When should marijuana use deny a patient an organ transplant?

STAT

OCTOBER 2, 2024

In 2023, Kentucky became the most recent state to pass a law prohibiting the denial of organ transplantation to patients solely because of their marijuana use. The legislation is scheduled to go into effect Jan. Over the past 11 years, similar measures have been enacted in 21 other states.

Hospitals

STAT’s 2024 Diversity and Inclusion Report

STAT

OCTOBER 30, 2024

Here, we share the self-reported gender and racial/ethnic demographics of our staff from STAT’s inception in 2015 through 2023, as well as our 2023 new hire demographics. The STAT Diversity and Inclusion Committee presents STAT’s 2024 Diversity and Inclusion Report. Read the rest…

Millions of people became uninsured as Medicaid programs cut coverage, new data show

STAT

AUGUST 5, 2024

uninsured rate in 2023 was a record low at the time, but didn’t factor in any of the people who were losing their Medicaid coverage. The national uninsured rate rose from 7.7% Read the rest…

STAT+: Boston Scientific acquires Axonics, urology company, for $3.7 billion

STAT

JANUARY 8, 2024

It’s the first billion-dollar medical device deal of 2024 — a rare occurrence in 2023, which saw just a handful of medtech acquisitions reaching the billion threshold. The device maker bought Apollo Endosurgery , a company selling surgical tools to combat obesity, for $615 million in 2023. The deal is worth $3.7

FDA authorizes new drug to protect immune compromised from Covid-19

STAT

MARCH 22, 2024

The drug, known as Pemgarda and marketed by the biotech Invivyd, is the first such drug to become available since the agency pulled AstraZeneca’s Evusheld off the market in January 2023. New Omicron variants had rendered Evusheld ineffective. Read the rest…

Immunization

Immunization Immunity Drug Development

STAT+: U.S. drug shortages have reached a decade high and are lasting longer, too

STAT

JUNE 4, 2024

Specifically, the average shortage lasted for more than three years in 2023 compared to about two years in 2020, and 27 of the 125 drugs in short supply were not available for more than five years. And 53% of new shortages occurred among generic sterile injectable medicines, according to the report from U.S.

STAT+: CVS Health sees Medicare Advantage patients seek more care, eating into profits

STAT

JANUARY 8, 2024

A persistent theme for health insurance companies throughout 2023 has been their Medicare Advantage members using more care than their actuaries projected, which has been eating into the profits they get from federally funded health care premiums.

Health Insurance Companies

STAT+: Young biotech venture firm raises $500 million for its second fund

STAT

DECEMBER 9, 2024

Dimension Capital launched in January 2023 after Zavain Dar, Adam Goulburn, and Nan Li decided to leave their posts at Lux Capital and Obvious Ventures and create their own investment firm, one focused on everything from life sciences software tools to therapeutics companies, manufacturing firms, and more.

Pharmaceutical Companies

Pharmaceutical Companies Pharmaceutical Companies Drug Development

STAT+: Prices for 5 drugs were hiked without proof of new benefits, costing the U.S. $815M in 2023, report finds

Here are the worst biopharma CEOs of 2023

Trending Sources

STAT+: Health care CEOs dialed back their pay in 2023. They still made $3.5 billion

Childhood vaccination coverage was falling across the globe even before Covid

Health data breaches hit an all-time high in 2023

STAT+: Here are the best biopharma CEOs of 2023

Substance use stayed at high levels in 2023, while vaping increased and smoking fell

STAT+: The biggest health care deals of 2023

The 2023 PharmaVoice 100

STAT+: UnitedHealth cuts profit outlook by $3 billion as more Medicare patients get care

STAT+: The health tech tracker for 2023’s first quarter: 12 industry events to watch

2023 Nobel Prize winner: Physics award goes to trio for electron breakthroughs

STAT+: Cancer therapy’s new ‘gold rush’: bispecific antibodies that hit key combination of targets

STAT+: FDA tells drugmakers to redo studies run by a contract research firm due to data integrity issues

STAT+: Class action suit over UnitedHealth’s AI care denials nears key moment

2023 Nobel Prize in chemistry: Trio win for quantum dots discoveries that revolutionized nanotechnology

STAT+: Tennessee officials find Express Scripts violated law governing commercial pharmacy claims

Opinion: Want to keep schools safe? Hire more nurses

Listen: 2023 in review, CEO report cards, and a look at the year ahead

Opinion: FDA cuts may mean even less oversight of pet food

STAT+: Congress created a unique plan to save rural hospitals — but few are using it

Private equity ‘gobbling’ up care facilities for people with disabilities

Opinion: The kids’ doctors aren’t all right

Opinion: I’m the director of the Center for Medicare. Here’s how we executed the first round of drug price negotiation

STAT+: Drug shortages reached a record high as 2023 drew to a close

STAT+: UnitedHealth continues making stealthy deals, pushing deeper into medical care as scrutiny mounts

STAT+: Pharmalittle: We’re reading about U.K. restricting Lilly’s obesity drug, pharma layoffs, and more

Mayo Clinic’s partnership with dairy poses conflict of interest, critics say

STAT+: AbbVie dramatically outspent its pharma company rivals in 2023 to promote its drugs to doctors

STAT+: Net prices for medicines fell considerably in 2023’s last quarter, mostly thanks to Humira biosimilars

STAT+: Health tech investments are picking up steam. Here are 5 VC leaders behind the biggest recent deals

Opinion: Medicare Advantage is bad for patients and bad for investors

STAT+: A U.K. trade group is due to lift its suspension of Novo Nordisk, but critics cite a lack of transparency

Morning Rounds: How much did health care’s top-earning CEO make in 2023?

Opinion: The crucial Sickle Cell Data Collection program is in jeopardy

Antiviral used for mpox no better than placebo, NIH says

Opinion: When should marijuana use deny a patient an organ transplant?

STAT’s 2024 Diversity and Inclusion Report

Millions of people became uninsured as Medicaid programs cut coverage, new data show

STAT+: Boston Scientific acquires Axonics, urology company, for $3.7 billion

FDA authorizes new drug to protect immune compromised from Covid-19

STAT+: U.S. drug shortages have reached a decade high and are lasting longer, too

STAT+: CVS Health sees Medicare Advantage patients seek more care, eating into profits

STAT+: Young biotech venture firm raises $500 million for its second fund

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