Chart of the day
AI makes $1 worth $20
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Recursion Pharmaceuticals saw its market value increase by about $1 billion yesterday on the news that Nvidia, a fast-growing maker of computer chips, would invest $50 million to support the company's work using AI to discover new drugs.
The announcement itself is heavier on buzzphrases than on actual details, but the gist is that Recursion, which was founded on the idea that sophisticated computers could speed up drug development, is using Nvidia's software, including something called "BioNeMo," and will make it available to biotech partners.
The outsized stock reaction — Recursion's share price is now nearly double what Nvidia paid for its $50 million stake — appears to be a biotech extension of Wall Street's recent AI boom. Nvidia's share price has more than tripled since the start of the year, as the perceived promise of generative AI platforms like ChatGPT has bolstered the profile of companies that manufacture the chips that power them.
Obesity
Take the latest GLP-1 data with a grain of salt
More than two-thirds of people prescribed a GLP-1 treatment for weight-loss had stopped taking the drug within a year, according to a study conducted by a large pharmacy benefits manager, suggesting the much-discussed treatments have fewer real-world benefits than their clinical trials would suggest.
But it's worth taking a closer look at those data, disclosed yesterday by the PBM Prime Therapeutics. The study period was 2021, when the primary GLP-1 treatment prescribed for obesity was Novo Nordisk's Saxenda, a daily injectable. Wegovy, the weekly treatment facing surging demand, didn't take off until 2022. That suggests Prime's study captures data on a less-convenient, less-effective GLP-1 medicine than the current standard of care and might not accurately reflect real-world adherence to the latest generation of drugs.
It's also worth considering Prime's vested interest in the ongoing fight between Novo Nordisk and insurance companies over whether Wegovy merits insurance coverage. The study concludes that, due to the high discontinuation rate, treating obesity with GLP-1 medicines led to an increase in short-term costs that resulted in no value to the health care system. Novo Nordisk is preparing an answer to this claim in the form of a massive cardiovascular outcomes study slated to read out this summer, which will undoubtedly escalate the argument between manufacturers and payers.
Research
How the search for 'N of 1' medicines could accelerate
The latest advance in crafting customized medicines for ultra-rare diseases has scientists and families optimistic that the process of developing so-called N of 1 treatments might gradually become less time-consuming.
As STAT's Bree Iskandar reports, a team at Boston Children's Hospital has developed a personalized medicine for a young child with a genetic disorder called A-T, or ataxia-telangiectasia. The same group previously invented a custom treatment for a child with a form of Batten disease.
It's not yet clear whether the A-T drug will prove to be effective, but the iterative development of customized therapies suggests scientists might be able to scale their approach to more quickly spin up personalized drugs, which would speed up the process of discovery, development, and approval.
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