340B Report, the indispensable source for news and intelligence on the 340B drug pricing program, has added two team members with deep health care journalism experience. Rich Daly, a veteran healthcare business and policy journalist, is 340B Report’s new editor in chief. Tom Mirga, editor in chief since the news organization’s inception in January 2020, becomes 340B Report’s editor at large.
Will Newton is 340B Report’s new Washington, D.C., correspondent. Newton most recently was a senior health care reporter for Clinical Trials Arena/GlobalData Insights where he covered the pharmaceutical industry and U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulation. He also was a rare disease reporting fellow for the National Press Foundation. Newton, who grew up in the Dallas/Fort Worth area and graduated from Williams College with Economics and Spanish degrees, is moving from New York City to Washington this fall.
Daly has reported and edited for multiple publications, including Modern Healthcare and Congressional Quarterly, and led the news operation for the Healthcare Financial Management Association, the trade group for health care system CFOs and other finance executives. His long-time focus on tracking and trending news developments in healthcare policy and business has been recognized through multiple national awards, including the 2021 Stephen Barr Award (the only individual-journalist award each year) from the American Society of Business Publication Editors. Rich also has provided insight for industry leaders, most recently as a content director for Sg2/Vizient, a national healthcare strategy and finance consultancy. Rich, a Washington, D.C., area native now based in Cullman, Ala., is a graduate of the University of Dallas.
“We are very excited to welcome such accomplished journalists to our team,” 340B Report Publisher and CEO Ted Slafsky said. Slafsky noted that both positions drew hundreds of applicants and that he was impressed with Daly and Newton’s comfort reporting on a program as complex as 340B. “Rich interviewed me on a number of occasions over the years and his grasp of the 340B program and the 340B industry stood out.” Slafsky added, “Will’s excellent coverage of the pharmaceutical industry and enthusiasm to take on a new challenge really impressed me.”
Mirga has had a 42-year career in journalism and public policy advancement. He was an editor of the University of Michigan student newspaper The Michigan Daily in the 1970s, helped found and was a senior editor at the influential trade newspaper Education Week in the 1980s, was a writer and editor at the centrist Democratic Leadership Council/Progressive Policy Institute during its peak political influence in the 1990s, and began writing and editing on health equity issues as a freelancer in the early 2000s. He and Slafsky have worked together on 340B matters since 2008.
“Will hit the ground running. In his short time here he’s already shown us a lot,” said Mirga. “And I was an admirer of Rich’s reporting and writing about 340B and healthcare more broadly during his time at Modern Healthcare and, especially, at the Healthcare Financial Management Association. 340B Report will be in good hands with Ted, Rich, and Will,” he added.
Daly expressed his excitement about his new challenge. “340B Report is an outstanding news source for the latest developments and trends in one of the most critical and highly contested areas of provider finances. As a journalist who has long covered the confluence of healthcare business, finance, and policy, this an exciting opportunity to unravel the many developments affecting one of the most fought-over policy areas in healthcare business. Moving past the soundbites and delving into the details of policy and organizational finances has always been a passion of mine. 340B Report’s similarly detailed approach will continue to set it far above other news sources and provide readers with the best possible insight,” he said.
Newton added, “While covering drug development and the pharmaceutical industry for the past three years, I’ve become very interested in how programs like the 340B program can widen access to critical medicine to improve our deeply inequitable healthcare system. I believe it’s particularly important for journalists to report on the 340B program given the myriad ongoing legal challenges and legislative efforts that could have profound effects on the program, and I’m excited to join the only news service focused exclusively on covering 340B. I look forward to bringing my reporting and data-journalism experience to the 340B Report team, and I’m especially excited to work on more deep-dive and feature articles as the team continues to expand.”
Both Daly and Newton keep busy in their off hours as well. Daly says he “enjoys reading and writing screenplays, home renovation (one basement, two kitchens and three bathrooms), playing with the dog and (six!) cats, and spending time with my amazing family (by far my favorite activity).” Newton said, “outside of work, I play ultimate frisbee and pick-up basketball, and I’m an avid reader and crossword fan.”
Daly can be reached at rich.daly@340breport.com and Newton can be reached at william.newton@340breport.com.
