“Why Is CVS Selling Party Packs of M&Ms Alongside Ozempic?” | Pashazadeh & Rees
A surgeon-turned-investment banker who still practices emergency medicine and the CEO developing mitochondria-targeted obesity drugs discuss GLP-1s — the $13 billion drug class reshaping healthcare — why appetite suppression comes with costs, and whether the next generation of obesity treatment can preserve muscle while losing fat.
“We Signed Her Out Against Medical Advice.” It Saved Her Life | Tom Whitehead & Tori Lee
The father of the first child to receive CAR-T therapy signed her out against medical advice when doctors gave up — it saved her life; Patient #10 is now in college advocating for a therapy that 45,000 people are alive because of, yet only 20% of eligible patients can access.
“Pharma Is Not Coming.” Patient Groups Are Now Drug Developers! | Sunitha Malepati & Craig Lipset
A mother told to go home and love her kid after her daughter’s rare disease diagnosis founded a patient-led drug development organization; a former Pfizer clinical innovation leader is now her clinical lead — together they explain why pharma is not coming for 7,000 rare diseases and what patient groups are doing instead.
92% of His Bone Marrow Was Cancer — A Scientist’s Leukemia Journey | Jesús Zurdo
A drug discovery scientist diagnosed with Philadelphia-positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia — 92% of his bone marrow was cancer — shares what clinicians don’t tell patients about chemo brain fog, survivor guilt, and the stranger in Florida who paused his life twice to donate stem cells.
Why Men and Women Age Differently — And Why Investors Don’t Get It | Fischer & Butts
Two biotech CEOs discuss why a depression drug that works in women but not men made investors ask if there’s a market (two thirds of depressed patients are female), how depressed men and women express the same genes in opposite directions, and why estrogen levels affect gut permeability and chronic inflammation.
We Mapped the Patient Journey. No You Didn’t
Why does patient journey mapping fail? What is denial fatigue? How do cancer patients navigate the system? Why is drug information inconsistent?
Why Only 20% of Eligible Patients Get Cell Therapy & What Needs To Change I Matt Hewitt & Jeff Holder
Matt Hewitt (Charles River) and Jeff Holder (LEK) explain why only 20% of eligible patients get cell therapy and what’s blocking CAR-T access.