Oh, let's just buy the place. $NVS
endpts.com/novartis-eyed-…

Yes, that would make a lot of sense. Not sure HBO would see the upside from an orgy of senseless violence, which is what the book looks like on screen. But better story telling.

Big bet by $VRTX here. Reshma Kewalramani is bound and determined to accomplish innovative things in biotech/drug development. By Andrew Dunn
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Amazon

Just finished the 30-part Chinese version of the 3-body problem. Some 22 hours. Have to say I enjoyed it more than the Netflix show. On to the trilogy of books. Great fun! First new sci-fi in decades for me.

TORL bio nailed a big, $158M round for ADCs. Can Mark Alles' do better with a startup than he did with Celgene? We'll see. From Kyle LaHucik
endpts.com/another-adc-bi…

Let's shift gears.
There's good news and bad news in our Q1 #biotech reports today. Not surprising that a scan of the numbers highlights opportunity and concern. Thanks again to Chris Dokomajilar at DealForma for running the number.
endpts.com/big-comeback-t…

...“they are dancing right up to the edge.”
Not the sort of thing you like to start the day with, but it can't be ignored. The whole thing is horrific.
washingtonpost.com/national-secur…

...while Novartis is doing another one of its never-ending streamlining ops -- this time in R&D. Also from the busy Kyle LaHucik
endpts.com/novartis-to-re…

'Legacy' ops getting the ax at Sanofi -- another exclusive from Kyle LaHucik
endpts.com/exclusive-sano…

'1 recent Iqvia report found that wh/shifting to adalimumab biosimilars would save up to $6 b for the US health system, PBMs would lose up to 84% of profit—a major reason very few large payers have come on board. 7 biosimilars now employ price discounts of 80%' or >.
It's broken

Don't ever underestimate $ABBV's marketing skills. At last tally, there are now 9 knockoffs to Humira, and AbbVie retains 96% of the market. They are going to squeeze every last dollar out of it they can.
Zach Brennan covers the story.
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Starting off with heavy fog and dense cloud cover today in extreme south Texas. There's going to be an eclipse behind that blanket, but I doubt I'll see much. Sometimes Mother Nature will not cooperate, and there's not a damn thing you can do about it.

Merck hoovering up ADC tech in the latest example of the intense dealmaking in the field. From Kyle LaHucik
endpts.com/merck-buys-abc…

The China factor looms larger for #biotech . Excellent story by Max Gelman as part of continuing coverage by Endpoints News.
endpts.com/us-china-tensi…

Yes, if you tamp down food and alcohol consumption -- and I've seen that -- what else are you tamping down? It's an important question that may not be studied as closely as the 'positive' stuff. I'm countering (maybe) by learning new things: physically -- tennis from a pro;…

Cognition is such a hard nut to crack. I hope it works, but the hurdles in neuro are steep. When do you have to start taking it to have an effect? How many years do you have to study it? I'm doing my own little, self-funded :) N=1 study on semaglutide. I can definitely check the…

Sad. But necessary.

Intriguing piece from Max Gelman on a GLP-1 success in Parkinson's, with human data from an academic study. Gelman explains why they used lixisenatide and the blood-brain issues. Another sign that GLP-1 has positive effects we don't fully understand. Pipelines in a product.…