Paul Allen Estate Launches $500 Million Research Fund
In this week’s edition of InnovationRx, we look at a new fund to support research, whether Congress will extend Obamacare subsidies, the latest data on Lilly’s obesity pill and more. To get it in your inbox, subscribe here.
Fund For Science And Technology CEO Lynda Stuart
Fund For Science And Technology
The estate of Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen has launched the Fund for Science and Technology to support research in AI, the environment and bioscience with $500 million in grants over the next four years. Its focus: big ideas that might take years or decades to come to fruition. “We very much believe in big bets and long bets,” Fund CEO Lynda Stuart told Forbes.
To that end, the organization also announced its first set of grants, totaling $15 million, three out of four of which are in healthcare. First is a grant to the Benaroya Research Institute to support its repository of human biological samples used in research. The second is for cancer immunotherapy development at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center. The third award is to Seattle Children’s Hospital to support clinical trials of promising treatments for cancer and autoimmune disease in children.
Health Insurance Costs Could Spike 75% If Congress Cuts Obamacare Credits, Trade Group Warns
The next month will be critical for the millions of Americans who get health insurance through the Affordable Care Act (also known as Obamacare). The Republican-led Congress will decide whether to extend tax credits and subsidies, which make health insurance more affordable–or trigger a big price hike in premiums.
These provisions got a boost under the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which enabled more Americans to buy coverage. This has helped enrollment in the ACA’s individual coverage eclipse a record 24 million Americans and help its popularity hit all-time highs.
If the Trump administration and the Republican-controlled Congress eliminate or reduce subsidies, premium costs could soar by double- or even triple-digit percentages next year, health insurance executives say.
Read the full story at Forbes.
BIOTECH AND PHARMA
Lilly announced yesterday that clinical trials of its experimental obesity pill, orforglipron, lowered patient weight by an average of about 10.5%, compared to 2.2% on placebo. With its testing now completed, the company plans to seek approval for the drug from regulators. Lilly’s stock price rose around 3% on the news, continuing its slow climb back since its sharp drop earlier this month, when the company released data from another trial for orforglipron that showed similar weight loss. Data from both trials was below analyst expectations, who thought the results would be closer to the 15% weight loss seen in clinical trials of Ozempic manufacturer Novo Nordisk’s own obesity pill. Jeffries analyst Akash Tewari said in a note today that “we’re not sure the stock meaningfully breaks out” until the pill hits the market.
Plus: Chinese biotech firm Akeso reported that its drug ivonescimab improved lung cancer survival rates in patients who also received chemotherapy. (You can read more about Akeso in this profile we published earlier this year.)
DIGITAL HEALTH AND AI
AI-powered medical devices promise to help doctors with a wide variety of tasks, but a new study found that many are recalled after being cleared by the FDA. More than half of those recalls happen in the first year after they hit the market–double the rate of other medical devices. The researchers also found that publicly-traded companies produced just over half of the AI-devices studied–but accounted for over 90% of the recalls, which they said “may reflect investor-driven pressure for faster launches.” The authors suggested that the FDA should require clinical trials for devices before clearing them, as devices that weren’t tested before hitting the market were much more likely to be recalled.
PUBLIC HEALTH AND HOSPITALS
The Department of Health and Human Services has awarded French biotech firm Osivax $19.5 million to scale development of its flu vaccine. The company’s technology uses nanoparticles that mimic a part of the influenza virus that is common across multiple strains, in the hopes of building immunity against many different types of flu with a single shot. The award comes just a few weeks after the department cut off funding for development of vaccines using mRNA technology.
Plus: The CDC has scaled back its tracking of foodborne illnesses from eight common pathogens to only two.
WHAT WE’RE READING
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appointed COVID vaccine opponent Retsef Levi to lead a federal task force that will review the safety of COVID vaccines.
Investors are souring on the obesity drug market after a spate of lackluster results and a lull in venture funding for startups.
Cat hair, bacteria and equipment failures were among the concerns found in a recent FDA inspection of a key drug factory now owned by Novo Nordisk after its acquisition of contract manufacturer Catalent.
Digital health startup Delfa has successfully recruited patients into over 50 clinical trials using AI to do the initial contacts and screening.
Cabinet secretaries Howard Lutnick and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. outlined plans to use tariffs as leverage to get pharmaceutical companies to lower drug prices.
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