Post-Hoc Live

Vijay Pande left Andreessen Horowitz this summer after 11 years as a life sciences investor. Now, he’s building a new firm focused on AI. He joins Post-Hoc Live to take the 10,000-foot view of AI in biotech and Silicon Valley: what do investors get right and wrong about biotech? What are the business models for AI in biopharma? Which moonshot project will stick? We’ll continue the conversation next week at Endpoints AI Day. Sign up for the virtual program here: https://events.endpoints.news/aiday2025

On Tuesday, the Trump administration announced that it had cut a deal with Pfizer on drug pricing and tariffs, and said it’ll launch a government website called TrumpRx where people can purchase cheaper drugs. But there are a lot of lingering questions: How big might Medicaid discounts be? What role will insurance play in the direct-to-consumer website? How are negotiations going with other drugmakers? Join us to recap all this and more from a busy week in Washington.

What would it take for US biotech to match the speed and cost of China? Former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb, who now works as an investor and board member, will talk about how the US can play defense against China's surging biotech startup ecosystem by moving faster and smarter, and if we're making steps toward doing so, or moving backward.

There are hundreds of digital health tools out there claiming they can do everything from manage diabetes to treat depression. But unlike drugs or devices, these tools don’t have to prove they work before they go on the market. Caroline Pearson, executive director at the Peterson Health Technology Institute, is working to fill that gap by evaluating how good some of these tools actually are. Her team is about to release a new report on virtual solutions for opioid use disorder, so she’s joining our health tech team on Post-Hoc Live to talk through what they found — and why their approach matters.

Will the XBI ever go up again? Today, we’re posing the intentionally provocative — but revealing — to Cantor’s Josh Schimmer, who has a new analysis out on the index. He’s joining Post-Hoc Live to tell us why, after years of flat numbers, things might be better than they seem.

Each year, the Endpoints newsroom places bets on the 11 private biotech companies that we think are the most promising, the most cutting-edge — and would leave the biggest crater behind if things go belly-up. Wednesday on Post-Hoc Live, we’ll share a behind-the-scenes look at how we pick the Endpoints 11, tease what types of companies we focused on this year, and look back at what’s happened to the 66 startups we’ve had on the list so far. And we’ll see you on September 18, when we unveil this year’s list in Boston. Reserve your spot here: https://events.endpoints.news/eleven25

John Maraganore and Clive Meanwell are teaming up again. The two biotech luminaries are coming out of stealth today as co-CEOs of Corsera Health, and have plans to create a two-RNAi drug for cardiovascular disease prevention. They’re joining Post-Hoc Live today to talk about why they’re betting their own money on the venture, their approach to starting companies, and what they think is coming next for the industry.

mRNA-based Covid-19 vaccines were a signature accomplishment under the first Trump administration. But now, RFK Jr. is in charge at HHS, and he’s cutting contracts with mRNA vaccine makers. We’re joined today by Brett Giroir, the assistant secretary for health at HHS under the first Trump administration, to talk about the impact of MAHA’s vaccine agenda — and what the changes mean for the future of mRNA and public health.

After three weeks of corporate earnings reports, we’ve got a roundup of news and analysis taking in all of the biotech and pharma companies that gave updates. We’ll dig into what big pharma companies are saying about the Trump administration’s tariff, pricing and regulatory moves, how companies are talking about China and what we learned about closely watched results from a few key companies like Lilly and Novo, a pain drug failure and how big pharma is positioning itself for its patent cliff.

Earlier this month, Curie.Bio CEO Zach Weinberg joined Post-Hoc Live to give his take on why he thinks investors should stay away from Chinese biotechs. Today, we’re joined by Cui Cui, the head of Asia healthcare research at Jefferies, to get her perspective on the China biotech boom, and why US pharma companies keep turning to China for their deals (and not to US startups).