Drew Armstrong

Why did Makary fail at FDA? endpoints.news/post-hoc-why-f…

🚨Friday night shakeup at FDA: * Acting CDER chief Tracy Beth Høeg fired, replaced by Michael Davis * Acting CBER chief Katherine Szarama out, replaced by Karim Mikhael * COS Trafficant out, others too Full story here from me and @maxonwifi: endpoints.news/cder-chief-hoe…

New: Trump officials want to recommend a new pick for FDA commissioner to the president by early June—a quick timeline that comes as they race to stabilize the agency. But first: More senior-level exits likely at FDA soon as today amid a broad review of Makary's leadership team

Full post here: endpoints.news/post-hoc-why-f…

An impossible job, done badly. Yesterday for @endpts, I wrote an assessment of Marty Makary's tenure at FDA. Makary was stuck between a set of brutal contradictions that would have made the job a poisoned chalice for anyone. He hurt himself by navigating those tensions poorly.

This WaPo editorial is truly baffling. -FDA has not issued a single new food regulation during this administration. -FDA has not banned a single food chemical during this administration. (FDA has asked the food industry to remove synthetic food dyes - many companies have pledged to do so, TBD). -FDA has not banned a single food product during this administration.

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Re-surfacing this old @endpts article on Isomorphic with the Demis catch-phrase "You do have enough data - if you are innovative on the algorithm side." Thoughts on the raise aside, Isomorphic is (mostly) unique in the AI x Bio cohort as the group focused on improving the underlying model architecture as the most important lever we have rather than accumulating larger and larger datasets. Incidentally, this reminds me of a conversation with a colleague at one of the frontier labs who ranted to me that "Biotech is not nearly AGI-pilled enough yet". The consensus view in tech-circles seems to be that generalist models will get good enough to solve bio challenges without having to lean on niche bio datasets. . . and this seems to be Isomorphic's approach. It makes sense why they're the AI x Bio shop to place your bet on if you are AGI-pilled investor group like Thrive that has been in the front row for AI's rise outside bio since 2022.

Working on a possible plan for Thursday

NEW: Isomorphic Labs has $2.1 billion, one of the largest-ever raises for a privately-held biotech. I have 5 questions to watch going forward, in my latest for @endpts: endpoints.news/five-burning-q…

@Nicole_Paulk @matthewherper * certain high-income parts of a part of SF

@matthewherper @ArmstrongDrew Haha fair enough 😜

Alcohol is wreaking havoc on U.S. public health. American society looks the other way statnews.com/2026/05/12/ame…

Spread pricing is one of those, and is both deeply complex + hard to understand, and also became a major target for reform advocates. I first got exposed to it while editing (Pulitzer Finalist) @RobertLangreth back at Bloomberg: bloomberg.com/graphics/2018-…

Optum Rx/UnitedHealth says its ending "spread pricing" in its PBM, after years of criticism, @ShelbyJLiv reports for @endpts This is a big change in PBM policy, as PBMs face pressure to reform some of the practices they've faced scrutiny over: endpoints.news/optum-rx-unvei…

@maxonwifi This thread will run live until 545pm on Thursday

Thread on my mental health. Erm, I mean thread on a timely interview that's still on the books (as of 3:18pm ET).

The interview with Makary is scheduled for 5:15 pm at the FT-Endpoints US healthcare summit here in NYC. It's a long time until then. Anything could change at any moment! If you want to join, you can register here: uspharma.live.ft.com/agenda If you're news media, you can DM me.

...Assuming no change, Max will ask Makary the tough questions about his future and serving in Trump’s Washington. And he’ll also ask him about his time leading the FDA, the US’s biotech rivalry with China, rebuilding post-DOGE and what he still wants to get done.

🧵For a year, I've been slacking @maxonwifi: "when's the makary interview" "get makary" "do you have makary yet" And while he might HATE this, Max is a hustler, and two weeks ago I got the news for the @endpts x @FT healthcare summit in NY on Thursday: “MAKARY INNNNN.”