Total payments PY2024
$13.9B
16,654,614 transactions
CMS Open Payments · Program Year 2024
Pharma payments to doctors, transparent and searchable.
$13.9B paid by 1,925 pharmaceutical and medical-device companies to 988,644 physicians and 916 teaching hospitals in Program Year 2024.
Total payments
$13.9B
Program Year 2024
Companies
1,925
Pharma & device makers
Physicians
988,644
Receiving payments
Transactions
16,654,614
Individual payments
In CMS Open Payments Program Year 2024, 1,925 pharmaceutical and medical-device companies reported $13.9B in payments to 988,644 physicians and teaching hospitals. Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation reported the most, and the largest payment category was Royalty or License. Explore the data by company, state, or payment type, figures are company-reported under the Physician Payments Sunshine Act, not evidence of wrongdoing.
The national picture
Pharmaceutical and medical-device makers reported $13.9B in payments to physicians and teaching hospitals in 2024, led by royalty or license.
- $13.9B
- total industry payments
- 1,925
- reporting companies
- 988,644
- recipients paid
- 16,654,614
- transactions
Payment Type Breakdown
Royalty or License $855.1M (6.2%)
Compensation for Services Other Than Consulting $706.0M (5.1%)
Consulting Fee $573.8M (4.1%)
Food and Beverage $415.1M (3.0%)
Acquisitions $266.2M (1.9%)
Travel and Lodging $207.8M (1.5%)
Top Companies by Total Payments
View all| # | Company | Total Payments | Transactions | % of Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation | $676.0M | 418,352 | 4.9% |
| 2 | Pfizer Inc. | $673.7M | 606,504 | 4.8% |
| 3 | ModernaTX, Inc. | $665.3M | 31,546 | 4.8% |
| 4 | Eli Lilly and Company | $652.4M | 21,268 | 4.7% |
| 5 | Abbvie Inc. | $607.8M | 1,766,164 | 4.4% |
| 6 | Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC | $525.2M | 223,349 | 3.8% |
| 7 | AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals LP | $428.2M | 864,383 | 3.1% |
| 8 | Genentech, Inc. | $400.6M | 36,410 | 2.9% |
| 9 | Midmark Corporation | $386.1M | 381 | 2.8% |
| 10 | Janssen Research & Development, LLC | $345.1M | 40,226 | 2.5% |
Payment Concentration: Where the Money Goes
Among the 25 largest payers, total spending doesn't say how many physicians actually received it. The Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI) measures concentration: a low HHI means payments are spread across many recipients, a high HHI means a small number (sometimes one) receive most or all of it. 2,500 is the DOJ/FTC merger-guidelines threshold for "highly concentrated."
Payments by State
Total reported pharmaceutical payments across all 59 states and territories, Program Year 2024.
Scale: $165–$68.5M $68.5M–$137.0M $137.0M–$205.4M $205.4M–$273.9M $273.9M–$342.4M
Top States by Payments Received
View all| # | State | Total Payments | Physicians | Hospitals |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | California | $342.4M | 75,013 | 121 |
| 2 | Florida | $334.6M | 54,303 | 76 |
| 3 | Pennsylvania | $305.4M | 31,976 | 72 |
| 4 | Massachusetts | $230.3M | 16,112 | 37 |
| 5 | Texas | $224.7M | 58,838 | 87 |
| 6 | New York | $216.8M | 49,928 | 104 |
| 7 | Missouri | $121.9M | 14,854 | 26 |
| 8 | Illinois | $120.3M | 29,359 | 60 |
| 9 | Ohio | $112.1M | 27,813 | 69 |
| 10 | Georgia | $107.1M | 22,488 | 29 |
Top Highlights
Physicians paid
988,644
916 teaching hospitals
Share from largest payment type - Royalty or License 6.2%
$855.1M of $13.9B (6.2%)
Learn About Open Payments
Educational guides on the Sunshine Act, payment types, and how transparency data can inform your healthcare decisions.
Understanding Open Payments
What the Sunshine Act requires and how CMS collects payment data.
Pharma Payment Types
Research, consulting, speaking, and food payments, what each means.
Why Transparency Matters
What research shows about payments and prescribing patterns.
How Much Pharma Spends on Doctors
$13.9B in PY2024, breakdown by category, trends, and top companies.
Drug Company Marketing Practices
Speaker bureaus, consulting fees, advisory boards, how pharma shapes prescribing.
About this data
How PlainPharmaWatch works, and why you can trust these numbers
What this site is
PlainPharmaWatch turns the CMS Open Payments program into searchable payment profiles for pharmaceutical and device companies. Every dollar amount is taken directly from CMS data without adjustment, inflation correction, or statistical modeling.
Editorial process
- Source. Process the official CMS Open Payments detailed publication: General Payments plus Research and Ownership records, with company, state, payment-type, and recipient aggregates derived reproducibly.
- Verify. Company profiles show exactly what was reported to CMS for program year 2024, the latest CMS has released, with no adjustment applied.
- Publish. Compile per-company and per-state payment breakdowns, linking back to the CMS Open Payments dataset so readers can verify any figure.
Editorial independence & corrections
PlainPharmaWatch is an independent publisher; it does not accept payment, sponsorship, or promoted placement from any pharmaceutical or device company covered on the site. Found an error? Contact us via the contact page or our editorial policy. See our methodology for full source attribution.
Frequently asked
What data does PlainPharmaWatch provide?
PlainPharmaWatch provides CMS Open Payments data showing pharmaceutical company payments to doctors, covering 1,925 companies and totaling $13.9B in payment year 2024.
What types of payments are reported?
Payments include consulting fees, speaking fees, travel, meals, research grants, and ownership interests. Each payment is categorized by type and amount.
Where does the data come from?
All data comes from the CMS Open Payments program, which requires drug and device manufacturers to publicly report payments made to physicians and teaching hospitals.
Data currency: Figures are rendered from the processed CMS Open Payments release. See our methodology for source dates and refresh cadence. Spot a figure that looks wrong? Report a correction.
Frequently Asked Questions
What data does PlainPharmaWatch provide?
PlainPharmaWatch provides CMS Open Payments data showing pharmaceutical company payments to doctors, covering 1,925 companies and totaling $13.9B in payment year 2024.
What types of payments are reported?
Payments include consulting fees, speaking fees, travel, meals, research grants, and ownership interests. Each payment is categorized by type and amount.
Where does the data come from?
All data comes from the CMS Open Payments program, which requires drug and device manufacturers to publicly report payments made to physicians and teaching hospitals.
Live Data Products
Every page renders directly from the current CMS Open Payments database, no curated narrative layer that could drift from the underlying dataset. See methodology.
Live Data
Company Payment Summaries
Per-company total payments, transaction counts, and recipient coverage across all reporting applicable manufacturers in the CMS Open Payments database.
1,925companies tracked
Live DataTop Recipients Directory
Highest-paid teaching hospitals, physicians, and other covered recipients from the current Program Year dataset.
Live DataPayment Type Breakdowns
Aggregated totals by Nature of Payment category, consulting fees, food and beverage, royalties, and education.