How to Improve the Efficiency of the Drug Discovery Industry

On this week’s episode, hosts Daphne Zohar, Josh Schimmer, Tim Opler and Sam Fazeli discuss the fall of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), private financings, drug pricing and more. The hosts jump right into SVB, summarizing how the fall happened and the potential threats and implications to the industry. They comment on how this would have been an otherwise great week for private biotechs, but now many may be scrambling. The discussion turns to President Biden’s budget proposal impacting drug pricing and how Eli Lilly has responded, unique financing structures and the merger between Adaptimmune and TCR2 Therapeutics. The hosts pivot to some of the good news from the week including BridgeBio’s positive data from its dwarfism drug, AstraZeneca’s Tagrisso demonstrating strong overall survival in Phase III trial for patients with early-stage EGFR-mutated lung cancer and FDA panel votes. They close the discussion hoping for a positive resolution. *This episode aired on Friday, March 10 as events were occurring.*