13
Feb
2025
Defend the NIH
Too many people don’t believe anymore in the American Dream. But if you can’t dream big, you can’t accomplish big things. Today, the National Institutes of Health — biomedical science itself — is under attack. It needs us to stand up in its defense. The NIH is an engine of the American Dream. The NIH, with a $47.7 billion a... Read More
11
Feb
2025
Building a Fully Integrated Biopharma For the Muscle: Robert Blum on The Long Run
Robert Blum is today’s guest on The Long Run. Robert is the CEO of South San Francisco-based Cytokinetics. He joined the company back in the beginning in 1998 and became CEO in 2007. This company, and Robert’s career, are emblematic of what this show is about — The Long Run that it takes to develop new medicines. The company has... Read More
10
Feb
2025
Rethinking Risk-Benefit in Sickle Cell Disease Therapy
Pfizer’s decision last fall to withdraw voxelotor (Oxbryta) from the worldwide market is an example of how companies make risk-benefit calculations about medicines, and how those decisions vary widely from one category to another. Cancer drugs have their own set of standards. The risk-benefit calculus routinely accommodates uncertainty and severe side effects, if the medicine offers a modest and temporary... Read More
6
Feb
2025
Billion Cells Project, Alumis Merges, BMS Cuts Deeper
Please subscribe and tell your friends why it’s worthwhile. Quality journalism costs money. When you subscribe to Timmerman Report at $199 per year, you reward quality independent biotech reporting, and encourage more. Subscribe Now Sign in to your account.
4
Feb
2025
DeepSeek Shocked Silicon Valley, but It’s Not Earth Shaking for Biotech
DeepSeek, the artificial intelligence (AI) research group owned by Chinese hedge fund High-Flyer, dominated last week’s news cycle—at least for 24-48 hours. The group launched R1, the latest in a series of cutting-edge large language models (LLMs). Investors panicked, erasing over $1 trillion of U.S. equity market cap in a single day. Nvidia (NVDA), the maker of high-powered AI chips,... Read More
2
Feb
2025
Timmerman Report Turns 10
Timmerman Report is 10 years old today. On Feb. 2, 2015, I rode my bike to the office on a wet Seattle morning and turned on the lights. I thought there was a need for clear, probing, contextual — and fiercely independent — biotech journalism. The past 10 years of biotech have been remarkable. I’ve had a front-row seat. It’s... Read More
2
Feb
2025
The Future of AI and Health, Part III: Improving Health By Enhancing Agency
Part II of this series is here “Agency,” Harvard’s Zak Kohane and I agree, is the word of 2025. Kohane’s reasoning: “Patients understand how to increase their agency in their disease journey with often correct and thoughtful instant second opinions from AI.” This perspective aligns with the opportunities described by A16z VCs Vijay Pande and Marc Andreessen, as... Read More
2
Feb
2025
The Future of AI and Health, Part II: Andreessen and Colleagues Weigh In
Part I of this series is here. Over its 15 years of existence, the Andreessen Horowitz (“A16z”) venture capital firm has evolved from a media-savvy disruptive upstart to an exceedingly well-heeled incumbent and powerful force in Silicon Valley and the country. In April 2024, the firm announced a gargantuan $7.2B (with a “B”) fund. For a typical VC firm with... Read More
2
Feb
2025
The Future of AI and Health, Part I: Forecasts Reveals Little Consensus
The likely impact of AI on health and medicine is … highly dependent on who you ask. Consider the spectacularly wide range of opinions offered in just the last several weeks. A $500 billion AI project, dubbed “Stargate,” was announced with great fanfare on January 21 in the Roosevelt room of the White House by President Trump. He was flanked... Read More
30
Jan
2025
Akero Nails MASH Trial, Cargo Crashes, & Maze, Metsera IPOs
Please subscribe and tell your friends why it’s worthwhile. Quality journalism costs money. When you subscribe to Timmerman Report at $199 per year, you reward quality independent biotech reporting, and encourage more. Subscribe Now Sign in to your account.
27
Jan
2025
Looking at Live Cells and How They Interact at Scale: Mostafa Ronaghi on The Long Run
Mostafa Ronaghi is today’s guest on The Long Run. He is the co-founder and an executive board member at Foster City, Calif.-based Cellanome. Mostafa is a molecular biologist and technology developer. He is an inventor of pyrosequencing methods for DNA sequencing, and is best known for his work as chief technology officer at Illumina during its glory days from 2008-2021.... Read More
22
Jan
2025
Party Like It’s 2015: Celebrate the 10th Anniversary of Timmerman Report
The Timmerman Report is gearing up for the 10th Anniversary. Time to Party! Join a stellar cast of biotech leaders at the TR10 East Coast Party. This free and fun event will celebrate the 10th anniversary of Timmerman Report. Don’t miss the toasts and roasts of TR Founder Luke Timmerman. Listen for a few predictions about the next 10 years of... Read More
20
Jan
2025
Pfizer’s Oxbryta Was Transformational For My Sickle Cell Warriors. Bring it Back
Following Pfizer’s voluntary withdrawal of Oxbryta from the global market, a mother of three daughters battling sickle cell disease shares why patients need it as a therapeutic option. The headline rocked our family to the core. At 5 pm ET, Sept. 25, 2024, the statement read: “Pfizer Voluntarily Withdraws All Lots of Sickle Cell Disease Treatment OXBRYTA® (voxelotor) From Worldwide... Read More
16
Jan
2025
J&J Doubles Down on Neuro, Lilly Acquires Scorpion, Umoja Pulls in $100M
Please subscribe and tell your friends why it’s worthwhile. Quality journalism costs money. When you subscribe to Timmerman Report at $199 per year, you reward quality independent biotech reporting, and encourage more. Subscribe Now Sign in to your account.
13
Jan
2025
RNA Editing Medicines: Ram Aiyar on The Long Run
Ram Aiyar is today’s guest on The Long Run. Ram is the CEO of Cambridge, Mass.-based Korro Bio. The company is developing medicines that edit RNA, instead of DNA, which more people have heard about. Previously, Ram co-founded Corvidia Therapeutics and served on the management team up through its $2.1 billion acquisition by Novo Nordisk. He’s had a long and... Read More
13
Jan
2025
Moving from Biotech to Nature
Everything started with my love for animals. I studied biology and journalism at the University of Warsaw — science because I loved nature, and journalism because I believed it would be my escape from the confines of post-communist Poland. I yearned to explore the world with friends, and did a variety of jobs – waiting tables, gorilla zookeeping, blackjack dealing... Read More
9
Jan
2025
Novo, Variant Benefit Sharing Win, Verdiva Joins Obesity Fray & Maze Eyes IPO
Please subscribe and tell your friends why it’s worthwhile. Quality journalism costs money. When you subscribe to Timmerman Report at $199 per year, you reward quality independent biotech reporting, and encourage more. Subscribe Now Sign in to your account.
9
Jan
2025
Australia’s Little-Known Biotech Advantages and Risks
Most US biotech entrepreneurs and investors don’t consider Australia a thriving global hub. But there are compelling reasons to take another look at what’s happening there now. Australia has become more attractive based on its willingness to allow fast, affordable clinical trials to help early-stage developers gather human data on new drug candidates. That low-cost, high-speed, high-quality early development capability... Read More
8
Jan
2025
How the US Can Continue to Lead As China Rises
China made its intentions known 10 years ago. In the “Made in China 2025” plan, released in 2015, the government identified biopharmaceuticals as one of the industries where it sought a world leadership position. The investment has paid off. By making biotech a top priority, the China biotech ecosystem is now thriving. As we enter 2025, the strength of China’s... Read More
6
Jan
2025
AI Needs Natural Language to Give Structure to Biology
The word of the day, at least in the AI for Biology community, is foundation models. Everyone wants bigger data on more things to throw into bigger models. Virtual cell models will enable us to predict how cell states will change in response to chemical perturbations. Protein language models will enable us to identify better enzymes for degrading plastics or... Read More