Reid Huber

As people chew on MFN this am, it’s worth reminder about other significant US vs. EU healthcare cost differences. Every system different. You cannot simply import foreign prices. If we want to really lower prices for Americans, get rid of OOP costs!

The specter of drug tariffs is killing the biotech industry (which was already reeling from RFK FDA fears). Half of biotech companies are trading below cash, an all-time high. In addition to killing innovation (and gifting China future industry leadership), tariffs would mean drug shortages, and higher insurance premiums. That is the future we’re facing if drug tariffs look like the others the WH has announced so far. If we must use tariffs, there is a way to bring back manufacturing without killing the industry and even make US biotech the undisputed leader of the world. Here’s how: - Announce tariffs that take effect in 5 years (the minimum amount of time to set up a new facility) for each drug, which escalate by year, eg 10, 20, 30, 40% etc. - Create new programs to reduce the time to set up a new manufacturing plant from 5 to 2 years. - Create special industrial zones in the heartland that fast track all local regulatory approvals, eg for construction, energy, environment, etc. Give tax breaks to the businesses, people (no state income tax, vocational scholarships, etc) who decide to live and work there. Give tax breaks to companies that can get their factories built for every year before 5 years. - Mandate FDA cut manufacturing review turnaround times to 30 days for new facilities. On FDA, people are assuming the layoffs will grind things to a halt. That fear alone is killing investment. Reassurance is critical. Here’s how: - Hire pro-innovation leadership at FDA who supports innovation publicly. - Get people excited that leadership not only knows what the current bottlenecks are, but wants to make things go even faster. Here are the problems and solutions: - US is now the slowest country to get Phase 1 studies started, and most conservative on Phase 1 design. Bottleneck is FDA pharmtox and manufacturing. Say will match China, the UK, and New Zealand’s speed through reform. - For product approvals manufacturing approvals are now gating. Shift to risk benefit related framework, cut the list of regulations that don’t materially impact safety, and push non-safety related requirements to post-approval. - Push academic institutions to speed up their contracting and IRBs, which are huge bottlenecks to trials. Give NIH grant incentives (eg bonus on top of negotiated indirect costs) to universities with the fastest stats and to encourage tech/AI adoption. If you like any of these ideas, please pass them on. If you have ways to improve them, please share.

U.S. leadership in biotech is a national security, economic, and public health imperative. With the attack on science and universities, instability at FDA, & weakening of the capital markets, we are at grave risk of ceding this leadership to China. This must not happen!

Taking a break from the political noise and reminding ourselves how powerful the innovation economy is for human health.... Rapid whole genome sequencing + curated annotation + physician support tools + AI/ML. We live in an amazing time. youtu.be/tAP1eZYEuKA @GoogleDeepMind

The loss of one of the FDA's most credentialed and high-integrity voices for science, medicine, and patients marks a very worrisome milestone for so-called reform. Entropic decay and irreversibility is not a strategy for drug review and approval. nytimes.com/2025/03/28/hea…

The zombies we should worry about aren't trying to bring medicines to patients or financially support their causes for returns - it's the folks with a keyboard in front of them chirping from the sidelines as if they are bending the curve of our future health. Laughable.

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood.

We will literally have ubiquitous human-level robotics before then...

I have different view. 1. Innovation for patients can/should come from anywhere in world. 2. Competition good, everyone works harder, make better or lower cost Rx. 3. US should respond by rewarding innovation + lower time/costs to bring Rx to market. wsj.com/health/pharma/…

Septerna added to the slight uptick in IPO fervor this fall with its $288 million Nasdaq listing on Friday. endpts.com/septerna-bags-…

Congratulations to Weston Golf D3 North Sectional Champions.

@JacobPlieth Is the LFT reversibility with observed with continued dosing or after adose hold?

Scorpion STX-478 vs $RLAY RLY-2608, via discussant Alexander Drilon #ESMO24

$RLAY moves from cholangio to a tumour-agnostic plan, but the markets aren't buying it. My take via @ApexOnco on yesterday's #Targets23 data: oncologypipeline.com/apexonco/tripl…

@matthewherper @Jasonmmast Congrats @Jasonmmast !

YES!!!! Jason Mast wins 2024 Evert Clark/Seth Payne Award ⁦@Jasonmmast⁩ casw.org/news/jason-mas…

It's just not right... why does insurance charge people out-of-pocket for a medicine no one would take if they didn't have to? We need to cap these costs for patients and #fixinsurance. Please share and help, @MariahCarey , @jessicaalba, @Eminem, @Pink, @JeromeBettis36!

@eperlste Uhhhhh...... No

Anything CRISPR or gene therapies can do, small molecules can do better. No delivery challenges. Cheaper to manufacture and distribute. And more accessible to patients anywhere in the world.

Super piece connecting the science we think about every day and some of the more relevent determinants of our lives and our happiness!

Congrats, Josh, Ethan and the entire @Marea_tx team. A unique moment in time to harness human genetics and our understanding of adipose tissue to bring new treatments to patients. @ThirdRockV

Congrats to $RAPP on pricing IPO this evening @T_Ignelzi @ReidHuber @rtnarch Sofinnova @ThirdRockV @JNJNews 💪globenewswire.com/news-release/2…

fiercebiotech.com/biotech/little… It took a long time and a lot of people to make this happen. This is why we do what we do.

@rosslevinemd Big congrats, @rosslevinemd - no surprise, well deserved and I'm sure more to come.