2023 - Pharmacist Digest

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

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.

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.

2023 Nobel Prize in Medicine: Karikó, Weissman awarded prize for mRNA research

STAT

OCTOBER 2, 2023

LONDON — Two pioneers of mRNA research — the technology that helped the world tame the virus behind the Covid-19 pandemic — won the 2023 Nobel Prize in medicine or physiology on Monday.

Immunity

Immunity Immunization Vaccines

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

Listen: Live from the 2023 STAT Summit

STAT

OCTOBER 19, 2023

Live from Boston at the 2023 STAT Summit, we discuss the latest news in the life sciences, including a milestone in genome editing, a twist in the search for ALS treatments, and the polarizing process of saying words in biotech. And how do you pronounce “Bayer”?

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

Polio transmission was supposed to end by 2023. A new report explains why it won’t.

STAT

SEPTEMBER 15, 2023

After having missed multiple deadlines for ending polio transmission, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative had set 2023 as the year when both wild polio viruses would finally be snuffed out and so-called vaccine-derived viruses would also be stopped, putting an end to a family of viruses that have paralyzed children for centuries.

Vaccines

STAT+: Lasers, cardiology, clinical trials: 2023’s top private equity targets

STAT

FEBRUARY 8, 2024

By some measures, private equity investment lagged in 2023, a year marked by growing distress and high-profile downfalls among private equity-backed health care companies. Each of the three niches continue to generate buzz among investors, even as other areas fizzle.

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 Madness 2023

STAT

FEBRUARY 28, 2023

Welcome to STAT Madness, a bracket-style contest to find the best innovation in science and medicine. Click on each matchup for a short summary of each school’s pioneering research. Then pick your favorites. Help us crown a champ!

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+: 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.

AlphaFold developers and eye scan inventors among Lasker Award winners for 2023

STAT

SEPTEMBER 21, 2023

The winners of the 2023 awards, announced on Thursday in New York, distinguished themselves in AI-enabled protein modeling, groundbreaking eye test technology, and in a wide-ranging career in medical science that combined innovative discoveries with attention to mentorship and leadership.

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.

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?

ARCH Venture Partners rises to the top of STAT’s 2023 biotech VC rankings

STAT

JULY 18, 2023

This article is adapted from the 2023 edition of STAT’s annual report, “Ranking biotech’s top venture capital firms.” Read the rest…

Opinion: STAT+: The necessary roughness of 2023 has set up a very promising 2024 for biotech jobs

STAT

JANUARY 19, 2024

The year 2023 was rough for everyone in this sector, including recruiters. Perhaps most notably: I didn’t encounter nearly as many “can you please help me find a job?” ” requests as last year. That suggests to me that 2024 will be a better year for the industry’s job seekers.

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

Watch: A conversation with the 2023 STAT Wunderkinds

STAT

OCTOBER 17, 2023

E ach year, STAT sets out to celebrate the unheralded heroes of science and medicine, poring over hundreds of nominations from across North America in search for the next generation of scientific superstars. This year’s class of 28 Wunderkinds were selected from more than 170 brilliant researchers.

The 2023 Red Jacket honorees

PharmaVoice

OCTOBER 27, 2023

This year's inductees to the PharmaVoice 100 "hall of fame" are leaders who have been at the forefront — and will stay at the forefront — of industry change.

4 historic FDA approvals from 2023

PharmaVoice

DECEMBER 6, 2023

This year’s many firsts included a vaccine for RSV and a drug that slows Alzheimer’s disease.

Vaccines

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

Morning Rounds: Our newsroom’s favorite stories of 2023

STAT

DECEMBER 22, 2023

Understand how science, health policy, and medicine shape the world everyday. Sign up for our Morning Rounds newsletter here.

HIPAA

HIPAA Drug Pricing Drug Development Hospitals

STAT+: Medicare Advantage membership grows 7% for 2023

STAT

FEBRUARY 17, 2023

million seniors and people with disabilities are now enrolled in a private Medicare plan, known as Medicare Advantage, according to new federal government data analyzed by STAT. That total is 7.1% higher than the 29.1 million people who had a Medicare Advantage plan in 2022.

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+: 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

STAT+: DNA-sequencing giant Illumina slashes 2023 revenue projections

STAT

AUGUST 9, 2023

SAN DIEGO — After starting off the year with lower revenue projections than market analysts had hoped for, San Diego-based genomics giant Illumina lowered expectations again on Wednesday, forecasting annual growth of 1% compared to the previous year. The market’s response was swift. to below $172 during after-hours trading.

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

Watch: Why fentanyl withdrawal is agony and how medication can prevent it

STAT

MARCH 5, 2024

overdose deaths in 2023. Over 2 million Americans have opioid use disorder, according to some estimates. Illicit opioids such as heroin and fentanyl were responsible for over 80,000 U.S. Despite the known risks, these drugs are notoriously hard to stop using — due in large part to how debilitating withdrawal can be.

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.

Drug overdose deaths fell for first time in five years, though still exceeded 100,000

STAT

MAY 15, 2024

drug deaths decreased slightly in 2023, according to new data, the first decrease in five years. Last year saw 107,543 U.S. drug overdose deaths, according to preliminary statistics released Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, roughly a 3% drop from 2022. Read the rest…

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…

Immunity

Immunity Immunization 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.

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…

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…

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…

As Covid deaths drop, heart disease and cancer remain leading causes of death

STAT

AUGUST 8, 2024

Overall, deaths in 2023 were 6.1% It roared into third place in 2020 but has now fallen to 10th place, the National Center for Health Statistics reported Thursday. Heart disease and cancer remained the first and second leading causes of death, followed by unintentional injuries as No. lower than 2022. Read the rest…

STAT+: Humana slashes profit predictions amid soaring Medicare Advantage costs

STAT

JANUARY 18, 2024

Humana’s Medicare Advantage enrollees got care in the hospital and physician clinics way more often than the company predicted at the end of 2023, forcing the health insurance giant on Thursday to drastically slash its profit projections for both 2023 and 2024.

Hospitals

Opinion: Moving from crisis response to crisis prevention in U.S. mental health systems

STAT

FEBRUARY 8, 2024

Despite widespread promises of reform after the murder of George Floyd in 2020, in 2023, police killed at least 1,246 people — the most in more than a decade. Meanwhile, there is now an historic amount of money flowing through the mental health industry, and the U.S. spends more on mental health services than almost any other nation.

Here are the worst biopharma CEOs of 2023

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

Trending Sources

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

Health data breaches hit an all-time high in 2023

STAT+: Here are the best biopharma CEOs of 2023

2023 Nobel Prize in Medicine: Karikó, Weissman awarded prize for mRNA research

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

Listen: Live from the 2023 STAT Summit

STAT+: The biggest health care deals of 2023

Polio transmission was supposed to end by 2023. A new report explains why it won’t.

STAT+: Lasers, cardiology, clinical trials: 2023’s top private equity targets

The 2023 PharmaVoice 100

STAT Madness 2023

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

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

AlphaFold developers and eye scan inventors among Lasker Award winners for 2023

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

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

ARCH Venture Partners rises to the top of STAT’s 2023 biotech VC rankings

Opinion: STAT+: The necessary roughness of 2023 has set up a very promising 2024 for biotech jobs

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

Watch: A conversation with the 2023 STAT Wunderkinds

The 2023 Red Jacket honorees

4 historic FDA approvals from 2023

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

Morning Rounds: Our newsroom’s favorite stories of 2023

STAT+: Medicare Advantage membership grows 7% for 2023

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

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

STAT+: DNA-sequencing giant Illumina slashes 2023 revenue projections

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

Watch: Why fentanyl withdrawal is agony and how medication can prevent it

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

Drug overdose deaths fell for first time in five years, though still exceeded 100,000

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

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

STAT’s 2024 Diversity and Inclusion Report

Antiviral used for mpox no better than placebo, NIH says

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

As Covid deaths drop, heart disease and cancer remain leading causes of death

STAT+: Humana slashes profit predictions amid soaring Medicare Advantage costs

Opinion: Moving from crisis response to crisis prevention in U.S. mental health systems

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