Annual ‘winners’ for most egregious US healthcare profiteering announced

[Tom McKrackin]

The 2024 “winners” of the annual Shkreli awards, given each year to perpetrators of the most egregious examples of profiteering and dysfunction within the healthcare industry, have been released from the Lown Institute, an independent healthcare thinktank.

The recipients are chosen by a panel made up of health policy experts, clinicians, journalists and advocates. The awards are named after Martin Shkreli, the infamous “pharma bro” who rose to international notoriety after increasing the price of lifesaving anti-parasitic drug Daraprim 50-fold.

“All these stories paint a picture of a healthcare industry in desperate need of transformation. In 2024, healthcare practices were put in the spotlight,” Vikas Saini, president of the Lown Institute, said during the ceremony.

“But doing these awards every year shows us that this is nothing new. We’re hoping that these stories illuminate what changes are needed.”

The No 10 spot this year went to the University of North Texas health science center in Fort Worth for allegedly neglecting to notify next of kin before selling body parts of deceased people.

An NBC News investigation uncovered that the school did not properly receive consent from the deceased or their family members before dissecting and distributing unclaimed bodies, despite the network finding that said family members were fairly easy to identify and contact.

LINK:  https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/07/annual-awards-healthcare-profiteering