okazaki

Life science VC. Posts are made on my behalf, and do not express the views of my employer.

[Eric Topol @EricTopol]

A new study links GLP-1 drugs and 30-35% reduced incidence of breast cancer, using matched-pair propensity analysis
https://t.co/AjNYlDM3A3
Confirms other association studies but still no proof

[okazaki @oakazaki]

@HankIgitur @lukerosiak You forgot the d at the end of your name

[okazaki @oakazaki]

@bergtreb @lukerosiak I agree berg. I’m ready to wipe your dad’s butt.

[okazaki @oakazaki]

@sky_and_sunshin @lukerosiak @e3a07ac163e9422 Their food is too spicy!

[okazaki @oakazaki]

@BrianFitzg98597 @lukerosiak @realBrandonGill I got free skittles!

[okazaki @oakazaki]

@Julieanna6887 @lukerosiak @realBrandonGill Julie: just don’t vote

[okazaki @oakazaki]

@TracyBethHoeg @anish_koka Enjoy being a chiropractor

[okazaki @oakazaki]

@katiewr31413491 @TracyBethHoeg @anish_koka Enjoy measles

[okazaki @oakazaki]

@doodlestein @MhgGrp That’s…only 3 years buddy

[okazaki @oakazaki]

@lunarcycling @RobertLKruse If they are reprogramming cell, the cells will last longer than 2 hours and can certainly cause downstream issues. Unless they put in a dependency or kill switch.

[okazaki @oakazaki]

What’s your best guess? Yamanaka factors? Methylation? MTOR? Something lame , right?

[Zavain Dar @zavaindar]

almost exactly 3 years ago Dimension led a $40M Series A in @newlimit, inspired by the pioneering vision of @jacobkimmel @byersblake and @brian_armstrong.
today, we announce a $435M Series C led by Founders Fund w Thrive and Greenoaks as new partners.

lets go chart the future.

[okazaki @oakazaki]

@Archimedes20311 @matthewherper Mtor

[Charles Gordon @princetongb]

$ABVX mgmt didn't appear to comprehend the impact their maintenance safety set would have and severely mishandled the release/communication. Also, no late-stage deal negotiation in process + now a cash issue. Seemingly, foreshadowed by the lack of success of their auction process and amateur 'strategic' press leaks. Today, telling individual investors they're doing a new comprehensive safety analysis. They should take a beat, get it together with a scientific advisory board, and present at a major medical meeting not another safety-set by press release. In sum, poorly calculated and a rut Abivax largely dug. Anything can happen in speculative biotech and some BioX gurus (particularly recent lotto winners) felt they were super-smart, immune. This is how lotto gains are often returned. Retail BioX, in particular, was overly influenced and gutted.

[okazaki @oakazaki]

@Nonyabuine31372 @zavaindar @newlimit @jacobkimmel @byersblake @brian_armstrong $0

[okazaki @oakazaki]

Few is doing a lot of work here.

[Bruce Booth @LifeSciVC]

Reflections on “in-licensing” as the nucleating substrate for NewCo’s in VC-backed Biotech. It’s not new - it's been a tried-and-true component of venture creation for decades - finding great assets and starting companies around them.

~20% of our startups (out of ~50) in the 2002-2014 window (Funds VI-IX) were nucleated with in-licensed assets from Pharma at inception. None of the assets were from Chinese pharma - mostly US/EU/JPN.

~20% of our startups (~70) in the 2018-2026 window (Funds XI-XIV) were similarly nucleated with in-licensed assets at inception. A few of those began with assets from Chinese partners, but also others in US/EU/JPN

Most of what we continue to do is de novo venture creation around great science with talented entrepreneurs and founders.  I suspect other early stage VCs are similar.

[okazaki @oakazaki]

@Banana_Oncology @SharkAlertsBio Assuming gut transit time is altered

[okazaki @oakazaki]

@Banana_Oncology @SharkAlertsBio Plausible. But then you’d probably see more delta between fed/fasted?

[Jing Liang 🇺🇦 @AppleHelix]

More relevant question is what will FDA do about this observation.

[okazaki @oakazaki]

@STL_Biotech @Banana_Oncology @SharkAlertsBio 100%

[okazaki @oakazaki]

@bftd2025 Stick to trading metals and sniffing markers

[okazaki @oakazaki]

The type of person who tweets this is someone with low self esteem and likely has accomplished nothing in their life. Truly deranged.

[Jason Locasale @LocasaleLab]

After decades of work and billions of dollars, this is what passes for a revolution in cancer research.

This drug is being hyped to no end on social media. At the oncology conference, there is a standing ovation from a crowd of 40,000 doctors and industry people celebrating it as a major breakthrough and the defining achievements of cancer research over the last decade. The scientists behind it will win a Nobel Prize.

What exactly is the achievement?

A drug that extends life by six months in less than 10% of cancer patients.

The cumulative R&D costs run into the billions of dollars. The drug is not a cure and pancreatic cancer mortality does not change. Resistance develops and more drugs need to be developed. When those drugs are hailed as breakthroughs, resistance develops again. Everyone in the industry knows this approach does not scale as a durable solution.

It is not a cure for cancer.

This work follows a narrow line of thinking based on oncogene theories that has consumed enormous amounts of federal funding and biotech R&D for four decades. At the same time, environmental factors, prevention, detection, the root causes of cancer, tumor evolution, diet, exercise, and many other areas of cancer research were neglected.

Any criticism of this model is immediately met by a coalition of interests invested in preserving it. Academic researchers, pharmaceutical companies, investors, journals, science media, professional societies, consultants, patient advocacy groups who have been told there is no other way, and online activists all have incentives tied to the existing model.

Critics are accused of attacking patients, opposing progress, or undermining science itself. Cancer patients become shields in a bigger issue that is really about the performance of the cancer research enterprise.

After decades of effort and billions of dollars, this is what the cancer establishment is giving itself a standing ovation for.