Venture capital
Vijay Pande is looking to raise some cash
Pande, the longtime investor at Andreessen Horowitz, has a new venture capital firm in the works, dubbed VZVC. He co-founded the firm with startup investor Zack Werner last year after stepping away from the bio and health team at a16z, as Andreessen is known.
Pande and Werner haven't spoken publicly about their goals, but a source told STAT that the firm could raise up to $400 million. That would be a significantly smaller pool of capital than Pande was working with at a16z, but a fairly large fund for a new firm.
"Ten years ago, when I started the bio and health vertical at Andreessen Horowitz, talking about AI and health care was pretty radical or heretical. A lot of people thought this would never happen. … I think, now, it's become quite mainstream," he said in an interview at JPM.
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Washington
Oz defends Medicaid cuts
Mehmet Oz, who oversees the federal Medicare and Medicaid programs, faced some tough questions from hospital execs at an invite-only panel on JPM's sidelines.
Speaking at the St. Francis Yacht Club, Oz downplayed the effect of President Trump's Medicaid cuts ("catastrophizing") and defended Medicaid work requirements, pointing to debunked data to claim that beneficiaries are watching TV for hours a day. He also defended the actions of his boss, RFK Jr., to curb access to vaccines.
Hospitals mostly put on a brave face at the conference itself, making a measured pitch to investors focused on stability and consistency. The execs who spoke with STAT's Tara Bannow after hearing Oz's remarks were similarly cautious. One hospital CEO told her she's focused on caring for patients.
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FDA
The latest FDA whiplash
From our colleague Damian Garde: Heading into JPM Week, investors widely expected Travere Therapeutics to win an expanded FDA approval for its kidney disease treatment on or before the agency's promised decision date today. Then, last night, Travere said it had responded to "additional information requests" from the agency, an update that reduced the company's value by nearly a third as it appeared to put approval in doubt.
In the end, Travere's drug was neither approved nor rejected but delayed, with a new decision date of April 13. That rules out "a worst-case scenario," as Leerink analyst Joseph Schwartz wrote in a note to clients, but it apparently didn't assuage investors' fears. Travere was still down about 20% after resuming trading in the afternoon.
Zooming out, Travere's experience is the latest datapoint for FDA watchers to puzzle over. The agency, whose leaders have promised flexibility and transparency, has repeatedly punted on expected approvals, leaving outsiders to sort out whether a given decision is the product of ideological changes or an overburdened workforce running out of resources.
Kite Pharma
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