Neuroscientist. Bassist. @UCSBpsych @NGPMichigan @UCSF alum. From academic research in consciousness/psychedelics to building the future of BCIs @neuralink.
China’s rise in biotech has been fast. Really, really fast. By 2024, for the first time, Chinese companies launched more novel medicines than any other country.
And by novel medicines, I mean a new active substance launched for the first time anywhere in the world. The hard part of drug development. Not generics, not a new indication for an existing drug, not a “simple me-too” molecule.
This would have been hard to imagine even a decade ago. Until recently, China was largely known for supplying the ingredients to build medicines. Not the actual novel medicines changing treatment paradigms.
That's completely changed.
We estimate China hit roughly four times the efficiency rate of the US in 2023, with ~16 novel drugs per $10B of R&D. In 2020, the two were at rough parity.
And big pharma is rushing to license what China is producing.
In 2020, China's share of big pharma licensing deals was just 2%. By 2025 that was 39%. And for 1Q26 it's tracking at 50%.
My take is there's a mounting sense of urgency for reform in the US: restoring and improving funding, incentives, and efficiency in drug discovery and development. Indeed, the competitive pressure from China could be one of the most important catalysts for reform of the American biotech industry.
Read my full take in @ARKInvest's weekly newsletter 👇
"Take a look at his speed! His ferocity! His training! I see the power of belief. I see the League of Shadows!"
I used to wank on the bass with the spirit of a much younger man.
SpaceX --4 times over subscribed. lots of money... But Cerebras was 20 times oversubscribed.. But much less money needed... Cerebras deal was a bust...remember...
Intel has been developing brain-inspired neuromorphic silicon technology for several years. We are now accelerating this work as we partner with Echo Neurotechnologies to develop algorithms that are not just brain-inspired, but actually trained on brain activity itself. This will allow us to build highly energy-efficient computing architectures and platforms that are faster, lighter and closer to how humans actually think. I am excited to work with my friend Dr. Eddie Chang and his talented team at Echo Neurotechnologies. Together, we will build AI that learns from the most powerful computer ever discovered, the human brain!
The most successful BCIs of the future will be those that can truly generalize. Modularity and functionalism were (and still can be) helpful frameworks, but they are antiquated and at odds with the emergent complex spatiotemporal dynamics of consciousness.
The cortex is not best understood as a set of fully separate, self-contained modules. Instead, regions work together in a more integrated, network-like way.
Brain-wide distributed processing underlying natural vision and audition
https://t.co/EzH97SJRqj
#neuroscience
I recently found out that spiders lack muscles and move their limbs through changes in the hydraulic pressure of their internal bodily fluids. Frankly, I find that absolutely wild.
Congratulations to Professor Emery N. Brown, who this morning received an honorary doctorate of medical sciences @Yale in recognition of his #neuroscience, #statistics and #anesthesiology research.
@MarvelRivals Reed mains waited all this time for what? A 10% ult charge reduction with 0 material buffs to his awful ult, 5 extra damage, and you nerfed his utility against dive. Cool. Glad to see you micromanaging D tier characters while giving the same broken DPS a pass.