Is Wegovy the future of cardiology?

Can Novo Nordisk ever make enough of it? And will there ever be an Apple of pharma? We cover all that and more this week on "The Readout LOUD," STAT's biotech podcast.

In the wake of a massively important clinical trial of Novo Nordisk's obesity drug Wegovy, our colleague Elaine Chen joins us to explain what we know and don't know about data that could change the practice of medicine. Then, Mizuho Securities biotech strategist Jared Holz calls in to discuss whether explosive popularity of obesity treatments could help create the first trillion-dollar drug company.

Listen here.

environment

Genentech gets fined by EPA for hazardous waste

Genentech has a waste problem. The EPA just fined the drugmaker $158,000 for hazardous waste violations in a South San Francisco site. This isn't the first time Genentech has had a run-in with environmental regulators: Three years ago, EPA inspectors found that the company didn't store waste properly and didn't appropriately monitor its hazardous waste air emissions.

In this latest citation, the EPA could not determine the exact type of hazardous waste that was stored without a permit. But the agency told STAT that there were at least 18 instances where waste was stored on-site longer than legally sanctioned.

Genentech told STAT that it takes its "commitment to sustainability and the health and safety of our employees and local community very seriously." The company says it has "implemented several new measures" to address the EPA's findings.

Biotech

Bridging the 'valley of death' with philanthropic endowments

The so-called "Valley of Death" is a tragic place to land when attempting to translate exciting bench science to a bedside. But one expert says there's a potential way out of this academic wasteland: Universities should create philanthropic endowments, with the proceeds earmarked to helping scientists advance their innovations.

"By applying the same sort of innovative, out-of-the-box thinking to our financial and philanthropic approach as we have applied in our scientific labs, universities can take major steps in bringing drugs and other therapies to market — and improving people's lives," opines Roopa Ramamoorthi, who directs translational work at UCSF through its Catalyst Program and InVent Fund.

UCSF has already set up a philanthropy fund for innovation, and other academic centers are beginning to as well. Vanderbilt, Northwestern, and Harvard have all received large donations to set up new endowments to help with the translation of lab science into commercializable products — and more are sure to follow.

research

Diagnosing and treating colon cancer with ... yogurt?

What would you rather: a cool, refreshing smoothie, or a colonoscopy? Scientists are engineering bacteria meant to ultimately detect and deliver a treatment for colorectal polyps or cancer — and it's meant to be delivered in a rather palatable cup of yogurt. It's very early stage, but proof-of-concept work published in Science that shows these engineered bacteria can detect cancer in the guts of mice. Furthermore, the bugs, called Acinetobacter baylyi, turn on certain cellular circuitry when they come in contact with aberrant growths in the colon.

"You have something, in principle, that gives probiotics the ability to sense not only things floating around like proteins or small molecules, but they can look 'inside' mammalian cells at their genetic information, which is quite useful," said a California Institute of Technology engineer who is studying bacteria-driven diagnostics but wasn't involved in this work.