Dispensed: A big week for biotech, a startup looking for proteins, and the pitch deck of an addiction-treatment benefits startup
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Hello,
Welcome to Dispensed, Business Insider's weekly newsletter. When not starting to freak out about how soon the New York City Marathon is, we've been busy keeping tabs on all the biotech news and beyond that came out this week.
The healthcare team is also planning to add two great reporters to the team - one to cover pharma/biotech and another (for the first time!) to cover health policy. Please, please help me cover the "Medicare for All" debate, things'll get busy on that front soon I'm sure. Know someone great for the job? Interested in what it's like to work at BI? My inbox/DMs are always open.
New to the newsletter? You can subscribe to Dispensed here.
Let's dive in.
Hoo boy, it's been a wild week in the pharmaceutical industry.
To start, on Monday, four healthcare firms agreed to a $260 million deal to settle key opioids cases ahead of a trial in Ohio. That's related to cases in just two Ohio counties, and more settlements are expected to leave drugmakers and distributors on the hook for billions in cases related to their roles in the opioid epidemic.
Then Tuesday, we wok to the news that Biogen had resurrected aducanumab. Back in March, Biogen and its partner Eisai had written the drug off after predictions that two key trials were set to fail. After a reassessment of the data and work with the FDA, the drugmakers reversed course.
I'm curious to hear what y'all think of this massive reversal. To me, it seems like it'll all come down to the data.
But thinking about the amyloid hypothesis's track record, I'm also worried about the emotion/politics that might be placing pressure on the
Looking back on the decade, we took a trip down memory lane thanks to a report put out this week by analysts at Leerink about ranking the best and worst pharma deals of the past decade.We added some context about why the top five triumphed (helps to have a blockbuster immunotherapy drug) or tanked (the hubris of biotech investing). Read more here.
Up next: Erin Brodwin has the story on a food startup that's focused on protein. The quest is to find non-animal-based proteins that will melt like cheese.
I took a look at the pitch deck of Hometeam founder Josh Bruno's latest venture, Path. Here's how he's convincing employers to work with him on their addiction-treatment benefits.
Clarrie Feinstein listened in to the podcast "A Healthy Dose," in which Maven Clinic CEO Kate Ryder spoke with investors Steve Kraus and Trevor Price. In it, they had an interesting discussion about Ryder's career prior to becoming an entrepreneur. Before, she was one of us - a journalist!
I'll be out in Las Vegas this week for the HLTH conference, and if you are too be sure to come find me and say hi! I'll be the one looking for good running routes around the strip.
I'll also be moderating a panel Tuesday morning and then having a conversation onstage with Ancestry CEO Margo Georgiadis Tuesday evening. Be sure to check them out amid the endless networking I can only imagine goes on!
Be sure to send your burning questions for Georgiadis and my panelists to me at lramsey@businessinsider.com. Looking for folks to pass story tips too while I'm out of the office? You can email the entire team at healthcare@businessinsider.com.
- Lydia
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