Bloomberg hires Hopkins to cover Big Pharma

Jared Hopkins, a reporter at the Chicago Tribune, has been hired by Bloomberg News to cover pharmaceutical companies.

Hopkins had been with the newspaper since 2009 and focused on sports, including the tangling worlds of athletes, money and the law.

He has reported on a wide array of topics, including safety shortfalls for boxers and mixed martial arts fighters; stadium financing and sports business; and high school recruiting scandals. His reporting has prompted legislative changes and spurred action from public officials.

In 2014, Hopkins was a finalist for the Livingston Award For Young Journalists for an investigation that found dozens of charities started by pro athletes were problematic. In 2011, he was named a Pulitzer Prize finalist for a series that revealed a pattern of harmful care at a private facility where developmentally disabled kids died from neglect or under questionable circumstances.

He is a graduate of the Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland-College Park. Before joining the Chicago Tribune, he spent more than three years at the Times-News in Twin Falls, Idaho covering local and state government.