GSK strikes back

Hello and welcome to The Vitals.

This week, medical bots are deployed in war zones, biotechs are blocked, content continues its reign, and more.?

Have a lovely weekend,

Will.?

Cracking TacBots

A new health chatbot has been released by Microsoft’s disaster relief team and Health Tech Without Borders (HTWB), and it’s having an immediate impact in conflict zones and for front-line emergency responders. It also teaches civilians how to respond to particular health challenges in war zones, such as bleeding and gunshot wounds. The tool is free to use, and has so far been deployed with significant impact in Ukraine. It’s a big leap forward for health equality, and a fine example of how health tech can transcend borders to the benefit of all.

GSK strikes back

From Hollywood script writers to German airport operators, strikes are back in fashion, and now they’ve spread to pharma, as GSK drugmakers take up the banner. Industrial action is coming from disagreement over pay - as negotiated by the UK worker’s union Unite - and will affect the company’s production of vaccines, inhalers and biologics. However, disruption is a fairly common occurrence in pharma, with methods such as dual sourcing mitigating shortfalls in supply. Could this industrial action really have the desired effect?

The AI high

AI has been touted to have a serious impact on the drug discovery landscape, reducing the time for drug discovery and the speed of manufacturing. Takeda’s latest deployment of this technology has already achieved remarkable results. Inevitably, this means that an enthusiastic bunch of young startups are milling around the industry. We currently have a model that almost relies on this lengthy process. Could the applecart be about to be upset? Many predict it will, but tech revolutions rarely manifest in quite the way the twinkly eyed tech oracles anticipate.

Out of the lobby

AstraZeneca has followed Teva and Abbvie out of the lobby and has declined to renew its PhRMA subscription for the second half of 2023, citing club membership as a suboptimal use of company money. It’s the third blow-of-its-kind this year for the influential group, which has long been a dominant force in US politics but has faced a decline in reputation since its inability to prevent the Democrat’s drug pricing reforms last year. Could this be the beginning of the end for the group? Perhaps, but it certainly won’t be the end of lobbying; it looks like AstraZeneca is bringing those activities back in-house, and it likely won’t be the last to make that decision.?

Biotech bust-up

The FTC is busting to block Amgen’s blockbusting takeover of Horizon Therapeutics. If it’s ruling is upheld, the precedent could undermine the entire biotech–pharma ecosystem. Regulators have stated that the problem with Amgen’s takeover lies in the potential monopoly it will command once it gets its mitts on two, high-priced Horizon products: Tepezza and Krystexxa. A fair argument, perhaps, but there have been many examples of similar behaviour—it’s what the biotech market is predicated on.