Episode 201 - October 30, 2026

On this week's episode, Chris Garabedian, Graig Suvannavejh, Sam Fazeli, Brian Skorney, and Yaron Werber opened with the M&A outlook from recent pharma earnings, with optimism for a stronger fourth quarter than the third. The group discussed Alnylam's post-earnings stock drop and the commercial challenges of launching its own drug. Next, Anthropic's acquisition of Mithril Medicine, a one-person company, and the unveiling of its founder, X user @Prof_Oak_, as Cody Tranbargar sparked a debate among the co-hosts on AI in biotech, with Amgen's fast trial enrollment cited as an early proof point. The group then covered a mixed IPO year, with early-stage companies still drawing investor appetite, and weighed the market outlook against interest rate and post-midterm tariff risks. They also discussed Plowshare Therapies' philanthropy-backed gene therapy approach and IgAN data from Kidney Week, led by Otsuka's Voyxact, whose full two-year results showed it halting disease progression. The episode closed with ESMO 2026, including Moderna and Merck's data and Genmab's run of successes, which largely addresses its 2029/2030 royalty cliff. *This episode aired on October 30, 2026.