Mike Rea

Pharmaceutical innovation geek. Author, Pharmaceutical Positioning. Post about clients sometimes. Founded IDEA Pharma. Created Pharmaceutical Innovation Index

[Mike Rea @ideapharma]

@TheSimonEvansX I liked how @grok examined my question next to this of how the famously 'non-level' Newcastle United pitch affects outcomes...

[Mike Rea @ideapharma]

"A 2006-22 benchmarking study of 18 companies calculated an average Phase I Likelihood of Approval of 14.3% - well above the industry norm. Yet the asymmetry missed in the ‘average’ is telling: Amgen led at 22.8%, followed by Novo Nordisk (20.7%) and Eisai (18.4%). At the lower end sat AbbVie (~8.1%), Astellas (8.6%), and GSK (9.1%).

Amgen and GSK illustrate divergent approaches with instructive outcomes..."
https://t.co/KP6M2Qp9Go

[Mike Rea @ideapharma]

@bradloncar This might seem odd, but I’m still fascinated about the decision to stay away from Pfizer. Clearly the right decision, but decisions like that are hard: who was in the room? who wanted it and why? who had to be persuaded, and what swung it? Human decision? Data based?

[Mike Rea @ideapharma]

I was looking for some voice of reason on this topic that suddenly became a topic (including asking @grok, but it mostly seemed to echo the non-science) - here it is, from someone I trust more than Sainsbury’s…

[Jason | 🇬🇧 🇿🇦 🇮🇱🇺🇲 @Ajaon_of_All]

Let me categorically Debunk this utter rot. @sainsburys.

I am a poultry Breeder. The hens that lay white eggs (Amberline/White Star) DO NOT have a lower carbon footprint.

Yes they eat a bit less and produce roughly the same amount of eggs as the Brown egg layers (Bovan/Lowman/ISA Brown) but they live shorter lives, are prone to dying suddenly when startled, a flighty and nervous and because they live shorter productive lives (12 -18mnths) vs brown 18/24mnths (both commercial farmed), you have to incubate more which is increased (Electricity/gas costs) and their eggs are not the same quality.

I breed and keep 20+ different breeds, including: ISA Brown hens and White Stars. All my hens are 100% free range, Not a single barn kept bird, I have ISA browns that are 5yrs old and still laying beautiful Brown eggs, I have not seen a White star live beyond 3yrs and certainly none have laid eggs past 18-24mnths.
White stars Lay themselves to death. They are slender birds and because they dont eat a lot, it drains their personal vitality to keep up laying the eggs you want to sell because of the nonsensical lie that they are "More Carbon Neutral"

You want to know about eggs, come talk to someone like me, Don't rely on some hairbrained imagination of a buyer who's trying to squeeze the profit margin for a few extra pennies at our expense and to the poor hens detriment.

[Mike Rea @ideapharma]

Imagine sales teams across the UK getting more excited than they have for a long time 😅

[Ihtesham Ali @ihtesham2005]

A team at Oxford built a search engine for every drug the NHS prescribes, and it has quietly saved the health service millions.

It's called OpenPrescribing.

The NHS publishes its full prescribing dataset every month. It's 700 million rows of raw numbers nobody could actually read. So Oxford built a tool that turns it into live charts in seconds.

You type a drug name. It shows you which practices over-prescribe it, which regions are slow to follow new guidelines, and where the money is being wasted.

→ Search any drug across any GP practice in England
→ Find safety and cost outliers instantly
→ 70+ ready-made quality measures
→ Updates monthly, automatically
→ Free, open source, MIT licensed

20,000 people use it every month. Doctors. Researchers. Journalists.

Public data that sat unreadable for years is now one search away.

https://t.co/U9KI0mUCAp

[Mary Lou Jepsen, PhD @mljmljmlj]

A new Openwater project - veterinary. Link below.

[Mike Rea @ideapharma]

I’m not sure I even know what to say about the UK… If this was 700, not 70, I’d be happier about how they’re spending my tax money…

[MK! @Officially_MK_]

HM TREASURY are recruiting a CTO with a salary under £80k🫩🫩🫩🫩🫩

[Mike Rea @ideapharma]

@mljmljmlj This is exciting! I’m all in 👊🏻

[Mike Rea @ideapharma]

Love that data sleuths (@addictedtoigno1… and others) and post-publication scrutiny are catching them more often…

Fascinating story about taking science for granted

[James Woudhuysen @jameswoudhuysen]

A PHYSICS GRAD WRITES: Ah, "the science". Debate is over, right...
https://t.co/u85wuU3oPN

[Candel Therapeutics @CandelTx]

Our CEO @paulpetertak spoke with @endpts reporter @Nicole_DeFeudis about new long-term follow-up data from our phase 3 trial of aglatimagene besadenovec (CAN-2409) in localized #ProstateCancer.

https://t.co/QdbPZnk9uP

$CADL #Immunotherapy #CancerResearch

[Mike Rea @ideapharma]

I literally just noticed (via The Sunday Sport 😅) that the UK government will soon be taking £1 trillion off us in tax!

And that still won’t be enough for them…

[Sunday Sport @thesundaysport]

Government takes £938.8 billion in tax.
Butters some toast.

[Mike Rea @ideapharma]

@SENGLAITAN Thank you for sharing! 🙏🏻

[Thomas Tan, Ph.D. @SENGLAITAN]

Interesting read from @ideapharma.

As pharma becomes more dependent on external innovation, focus—not size—may be biotech's greatest advantage.

Small teams pursuing differentiated science can create outsized value in today's ecosystem.

https://t.co/9oxoV1RRbB

[Dr. Paul Peter Tak @paulpetertak]

Patients with localized Prostate Cancer want more than treatment, they want to live free from cancer while maintaining quality of life.
Excellent discussion from #AUA2026 with Dr. Mark Garzotto and patient advocate Tom Hulsey on aglatimagene besadenovec (CAN-2409), the phase 3 data, and the patient perspective.
Interview: https://t.co/tIR4quZpDN

[Mike Rea @ideapharma]

"pharma companies have increasingly turned to biotechs - not just for licensing assets, but for outright acquisitions - to refill pipelines. Is this a sign of internal R&D weakness, or a smarter, more asymmetric way to play the odds?"
https://t.co/SnhnJGhE5e

[Dr. Paul Peter Tak @paulpetertak]

Adding Immunotherapy to Radiation Improves Disease-Free Survival in Localized Prostate Cancer.
“This study demonstrates that adding aglatimagene to standard radiotherapy can improve disease-free survival for patients with localized prostate cancer without increasing clinically significant side effects,” says first author and prostate cancer expert Theodore DeWeese, M.D., The Frances Watt Baker, M.D., and Lenox D. Baker Jr., M.D., Dean of the Medical Faculty and CEO of Johns Hopkins Medicine.
"These findings could represent a meaningful advance for men with localized prostate cancer. If approved, aglatimagene immunotherapy may be the first new therapy for men with localized prostate cancer in over 20 years,” says prostate cancer expert Ana Kiess, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of radiation oncology and molecular radiation sciences.
https://t.co/yKX2aPDf27

https://t.co/YJONyTTuwG

[Mike Rea @ideapharma]

@barttels2 @RyanBethencourt @FidoCure @SciRouterAI

[Ryan Bethencourt @RyanBethencourt]

I'm a big fan of Fido cure and the work they're doing!

One of the most frustrating aspects of the deep insights that vets have had about one health is there has been virtually zero focus on investment for accelerating human medicine.

The veterinary profession knows it but most of human healthcare mostly ignores it.

[Dr. Paul Peter Tak @paulpetertak]

A proud day for the entire @CandelTx team.
Our pivotal and phase 3 study of aglatimagene besadenovec (CAN-2409) in localized prostate cancer is now published in @TheLancetOncol.
Together with the recently presented 58-month follow-up data from Dr. Mark Garzotto at #AUA2026, the results demonstrate clinically meaningful long-term benefit, including a 39% improvement in prostate cancer-specific disease-free survival.
Most importantly, this work is about helping more patients live free from recurrence, need for salvage anti-tumor therapies, and metastasis after treatment with curative intent.
Thank you to the patients, investigators, and everyone who contributed to this achievement.
https://t.co/f2viIGu1VV