Episode 188 - July 10, 2026

<p>On this week&#39;s episode, Sam Fazeli, Josh Schimmer, Eric Schmidt, Paul Matteis, and special guest STAT&#39;s Matt Herper open on the market, noting that despite a wobbly day for biotech, the XBI holds strong gains year-to-date. The conversation turns to FDA transparency, where the co-hosts flag that CRLs haven&#39;t been released since April and that the agency may be walking back that practice. The co-hosts debate whether the FDA is swinging too far toward leniency after Agios&#39; mitapivat won priority review in sickle cell disease despite missing its primary endpoint last year. On AI in drug discovery, Matt Herper recaps an interview with Anthropic&#39;s CEO about a new research tool, noting that it&#39;s plausible the tool helps industry pick better targets and lower the failure rate. In M&amp;A, Vertex&#39;s largest-ever deal takes Crinetics for $10 billion net of cash, staking a claim in the specialty rare endocrine space, while Novartis expands its ADC portfolio with Myricx for $1.1 billion upfront plus $400 million in milestones — the second European ADC deal in recent months. On data, AstraZeneca and Ionis&#39; eplontersen trial in ATTR-CM missed its endpoint, showing no benefit or biomarker signal on top of background tafamidis; the group then discusses the readthroughs for BridgeBio, Alnylam, and Pfizer&#39;s ATTR therapies. This episode aired on July 10, 2026.</p>