Irum Zaheer, MD
Internal Medicine · Houston, TXNPI 1336390707
Payments from drug & device makers
Across 510 payments — averaging $14.86 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- AbbVie$2K
- Novo Nordisk$1K
- GSK$722
- Astellas Pharma US Inc$543
- Pfizer$469
- Johnson & Johnson$407
- plus $2K from 25 others
What the payments were for
- Food & beverage$7,581100%
Most of this is food and beverage — typically meals provided during product presentations at a clinic or hospital. Nationally that is the single largest category of reported payments by count.
General payments by program year
Who reported the general payments
Companies are grouped under their corporate parent — a single manufacturer often files under several CMS reporting entities. Research and ownership payments are counted separately and are not in this table.
| Company | Payments | Total |
|---|---|---|
| AbbVie(2 entities) | 196 | $2,318 |
| Novo Nordisk | 86 | $1,233 |
| GSK | 43 | $722 |
| Astellas Pharma US Inc | 26 | $543 |
| Pfizer | 32 | $469 |
| Johnson & Johnson | 29 | $407 |
| Dexcom, Inc. | 14 | $296 |
| Inspire Medical Systems, Inc. | 5 | $251 |
| Novartis | 11 | $173 |
| Amgen(2 entities) | 11 | $157 |
| Abbott | 6 | $129 |
| Sumitomo Pharma America, Inc. | 6 | $116 |
| AstraZeneca | 7 | $104 |
| Amarin Pharma, Inc. | 7 | $96 |
| Lilly USA, LLC | 5 | $91 |
| Sanofi-aventis U.S. LLC | 4 | $74 |
| Gilead | 3 | $59 |
| Aimmune Therapeutics, Inc. | 2 | $56 |
| Radius Health, Inc. | 2 | $44 |
| Sanofi Pasteur Inc. | 2 | $32 |
| Salix Pharmaceuticals, A Division Of Bausch Health US, LLC | 2 | $30 |
| IBSA Pharma Inc. | 2 | $25 |
| Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc. | 1 | $25 |
| Daiichi Sankyo Inc. | 1 | $22 |
| Boehringer Ingelheim | 1 | $18 |
| Medicure Pharma Inc. | 1 | $18 |
| Exact Sciences | 1 | $17 |
| Eisai Inc. | 1 | $16 |
| Currax Pharmaceuticals LLC | 1 | $15 |
| Merck | 1 | $11 |
| Genentech USA, Inc. | 1 | $11 |
What the payments were tied to
Products named in the reported payments. Only payments of $100 or more are attributed here — the typical reported payment nationally is a meal worth about $16, and listing those product-by-product would be noise.
- Inspire$162
How this compares
$7,581 in reported general payments places this provider in the 90th percentile of 7,675 internal medicine providers in Texas.
Medicare billing
What this is not: this is the amount Original Medicare Part B allowed for services this provider billed in 2024. It is not their income. It excludes Medicare Advantage — now more than half of all Medicare enrollment — along with Medicaid and all commercial insurance, and it is gross practice revenue before staff, rent, supplies and malpractice premiums. CMS also suppresses any figure covering ten or fewer patients, so low-volume providers appear smaller than they are.
Most prescribed under Part D
| Drug | Claims | Cost to plans & patients |
|---|---|---|
| JardianceEmpagliflozin | 118 | $153,951 |
| FarxigaDapagliflozin Propanediol | 97 | $108,293 |
| OzempicSemaglutide | 68 | $99,412 |
| MounjaroTirzepatide | 57 | $97,495 |
| JanuviaSitagliptin Phosphate | 29 | $40,162 |
| Trelegy ElliptaFluticasone/Umeclidin/Vilanter | 50 | $38,874 |
| EliquisApixaban | 32 | $36,641 |
| MyrbetriqMirabegron | 34 | $31,150 |
| TrulicityDulaglutide | 13 | $23,099 |
| VascepaIcosapent Ethyl | 33 | $21,730 |
| XareltoRivaroxaban | 14 | $9,629 |
| Ezetimibe | 229 | $7,813 |
| Rosuvastatin Calcium | 365 | $7,322 |
| Icosapent Ethyl | 18 | $7,094 |
| Breo ElliptaFluticasone/Vilanterol | 11 | $6,159 |
Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.
Companies that both paid and supply prescribed drugs
These companies both reported payments to this provider and make drugs the provider prescribed under Medicare Part D in 2024. For most specialties this overlap is expected — a cardiologist who is paid by a cardiology drugmaker also treats heart disease. It is shown so the reader can see it, not because it implies anything on its own.
| Company | Paid to this provider | Part D cost of their drugs |
|---|---|---|
| Boehringer IngelheimJardiance | $18 | $153,951118 claims |
| Lilly USA, LLCMounjaro, Trulicity | $91 | $120,59470 claims |
| AstraZenecaFarxiga | $104 | $108,29397 claims |
| Novo NordiskOzempic | $1,233 | $99,41268 claims |
| GSKTrelegy Ellipta, Breo Ellipta | $722 | $45,03261 claims |
| MerckJanuvia | $11 | $40,16229 claims |
| PfizerEliquis, Paxlovid | $469 | $38,07146 claims |
| Astellas Pharma US IncMyrbetriq | $543 | $31,15034 claims |
| Johnson & JohnsonXarelto | $407 | $9,62914 claims |
| AbbVieSynthroid | $2,318 | $4,10248 claims |
Reading this fairly. The Part D column is what drug plans and patients paid pharmacies — this provider received none of it, and it reflects how many patients they treat and what those drugs cost. Against peers, this provider's reported payments sit in the 90th percentile of 7,675 internal medicine providers in Texas.
Other internal medicine in Houston
- Jan BurgerHouston$47.3M
- Nitin JainHouston$33.2M
- Aung NaingHouston$30.6M
- Preetesh JainHouston$19.5M
- Paolo StratiHouston$19.2M
- Nicholas ShortHouston$17.6M
- Isabella GlitzaHouston$14.8M
- Murtaza MussajiHouston$13.1M
- Hussein TawbiHouston$12.6M
- Hans LeeHouston$11.7M
Where these figures come from
- Payments: CMS Open Payments, program years 2019–2025 (publication P06302026_06032026).
- Billing: Medicare Physician & Other Practitioners, data year 2024. Original Medicare Part B only.
- Identity: NPPES NPI Registry, July 2026.