Hi, it’s Edmund.
Over the past week, I got a chance to chat with Peter Fedichev, founder and CEO of Gero, and Alex Kadet, the startup’s chief business officer. Gero is a biotech company that leverages AI to facilitate the discovery of drugs that can extend one’s lifespan.
While our discussion focused on the drug development process in the pharmaceutical industry, we also touched on the ongoing crisis in the sector and how drugmakers were launching new medicines at record-high prices.
One common reason cited by pharmaceutical companies to justify high drug prices is that drug discovery calls for high R&D spending.
But a recent study of 60 drugs approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from 2009 to 2018 refutes this. The research findings showed no correlation between what pharma companies spend on R&D and the high drug prices they charge.
To read more about the other contentious issues in the pharmaceutical sector, check out our Q&A with Gero here.
In The Bullet this week
Digital productivity apps promise to make organizations and individuals more efficient by maximizing time and getting more things done. But when they start to run our lives, that’s when we should take a step back and ask what the true meaning of productivity is, and how it ties into our overall well-being.
Read Melody’s column here.
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