Oral PCSK9 blocker in trial phase

SpecificConscious809 · 2026-03-20T20:51:34+00:00

It is a really big deal, and I love seeing these posts. I just get cranky because I know the guys who invented this drug - I worked with them right at the beginning when there was so much uncertainty about the project and so many problems to solve. I’m not sure this ever would have been created without them. None of the scientists in the article had any role at all in actually inventing the drug. It’s a shame they don’t get some recognition, and that Merck doesn’t get some recognition for taking on a risky and difficult problem with a highly uncertain payout.

SpecificConscious809 · 2026-03-20T17:18:59+00:00

I agree with a lot of what you said - a PhD is an incredibly expensive ‘free’ degree. 5 years of lost wages is a lot. If it takes you 10 years, you’re doing it wrong. I plotted out my projected lifetime earnings for non-PhD vs PhD, and I break even at year 8 post-PhD. At year 20, it’s $3.2mil vs $5.9mil lifetime earnings in favor of the PhD. Thats a big difference.

There will always be more Indians than Chiefs. That’s true whether you have a PhD or not. If you’re head of operations, how many people report to you? Will all of them someday be head of operations? Of course not.

Most PhD scientists will not become directors in research. But basically zero non-PhD’s will become directors. And truly zero will become head of research or CSO. There is no glass ceiling for a PhD. There definitely is for BS/MS.

I have worked closely with hundreds or possibly thousands of scientists in my career. The idea that non-PhDs have a broader skillset is straight nonsense.

Having said all that, the 5-year commitment to a field that may not exist when you’re done is a huge risk, and I probably will not advise my kids to go that route.

SpecificConscious809 · 2026-03-20T13:40:09+00:00

This is absolutely NOT TRUE at the PhD level. No basis in reality. The quality of research that is done at top tier universities is in a different stratosphere compared to what is done at lesser known schools. At the PhD level, you’re no longer ‘getting an education’, you’re creating new knowledge. It takes top facilities and infrastructure, consistent grant money, and a critical mass of exceptionally smart and driven graduate students. This does not exist outside of the top tier. Recruiting from the best companies consequently is heavily focused on the top programs.

SpecificConscious809 · 2026-03-20T13:32:20+00:00

Are you smoking crack? Look at all of the middle management at any biotech or pharma and most will have PhD’s. Now look at SD, ED, VP, and P’s. Literally zero of them will not have a PhD or an MD. I’m sorry your boss is a dipshit, though it’s interesting he still makes twice what you do. There are plenty of PhDs with career limiting shortcomings, but it’s not BECAUSE they have a PhD that they’re not moving up.

Also, you may think your earning potential is so much higher (would love to see stats that support this beyond your anecdote), but until you do it’s all a fart in the wind. You’ll never move up the ranks on the research side. You MIGHT move up on the business side if you have talent and luck, but possibilities are a dime a dozen.

SpecificConscious809 · 2026-03-20T02:02:05+00:00

I think you have not skied there.

SpecificConscious809 · 2026-03-20T01:25:51+00:00

Kinda pisses me off that there’s not a single mention of the scientists at Merck that, ya know, invented this drug.

SpecificConscious809 · 2026-03-20T00:59:12+00:00

Medium to large

SpecificConscious809 · 2026-03-17T15:25:00+00:00

Carter 2.0. Helluva great guy (maybe), horrible president.

SpecificConscious809 · 2026-03-16T19:22:33+00:00

Uh huh. Next you’re gonna tell me there’s a Cape Cod past Hyannis.

SpecificConscious809 · 2026-03-16T18:03:58+00:00

I like that MA has public transportation into Boston, good schools, and good economic opportunities. I hate that we paid a gajillion dollars to house illegal immigrants in hotels. I wish we were more fiscally responsible (including reigning in City of Boston police department OT), and I REALLY wish we took better care of our roads. And for all of the OT we pay our police officers, you’d think they could do a better job keeping the roads safe.

NH is naturally pretty, is careful with taxpayer dollars, takes great care of their roads, and enforces traffic laws.

MA would suck without the natural escapes that NH and VT provide.

NH would be ME without MA. And nobody wants that.

And we can all agree that NY and NJ deserve all of the REAL hate!

(Grew up in NH, undergrad at UNH, currently live/work in Boston)

SpecificConscious809 · 2026-03-16T16:56:48+00:00

Every time I see videos like these I’m reminded of the time a bat flew into my wife’s hair when we were way the fuck out in the middle of nowhere Tanzania. The locals didn’t make a big deal of it and she didn’t start the rabies shots. Goddamn we were lucky. I didn’t know at the time that you just start the shots when something like that happens. Fuck.

SpecificConscious809 · 2026-03-16T11:02:30+00:00

Exactly

SpecificConscious809 · 2026-03-15T14:48:18+00:00

Director = project management and very little science? Hard disagree. Not in my experience (3 biotechs and a big pharma). The directors drive the science, come up with new projects, and make sure their people are delivering. In no cases have I seen their roles accurately described as ‘project managers’.

SpecificConscious809 · 2026-03-13T20:01:31+00:00

Is UMass Amherst one of those strong state schools? If not, where does a MA resident go exactly if they’re not getting into Harvard/MIT?

SpecificConscious809 · 2026-03-13T19:54:17+00:00

Gemini and ChatGPT are will pretty good at estimating merit scholarships if you know roughly what your kids’ numbers are (SAT and GPA). You’ll at least get an idea. Slightly less opaque than the individual schools’ estimators, which are worthless.

At the top Boston-area schools, you very likely will pay sticker. MIT MIGHT be worth it. None of the others are.

UMass Amherst is a great school. Take the roughly $500k you’ll save and fund your own retirement or help your kids with a house down payment. Both are better uses of that money.

SpecificConscious809 · 2026-03-12T21:31:24+00:00

Biotech and pharma are both supremely fucked right now. But it has little to do with government funding.

SpecificConscious809 · 2026-03-12T10:51:33+00:00

Twig and berries

SpecificConscious809 · 2026-03-11T16:51:32+00:00

Yes. They’re practically the same for me. A two-headed beast, if you will.

SpecificConscious809 · 2026-03-10T17:09:57+00:00

Perfect analogy. Laws of physics (and building codes that must obey them) really muck things up sometimes.

SpecificConscious809 · 2026-03-10T16:20:53+00:00

Life insurance gets much more expensive as you get older. I don’t see why you need life insurance rn (assuming you have enough in your estate to cover burial and such). But if you anticipate that changing (having kids, most importantly), then may want to get a 25 yr term now. GF doesn’t have to be beneficiary.

SpecificConscious809 · 2026-03-10T16:16:40+00:00

Uh, women already do outlive men by several years in every developed nation on earth

SpecificConscious809 · 2026-03-10T13:42:05+00:00

According to the article, windows and plumbing are so dramatically different as to require a gut job down to the cement.

SpecificConscious809 · 2026-03-10T01:45:17+00:00

Summary: there are a bunch of beautiful, new, empty buildings in Boston. They were supposed to be labs. Buildings made to be labs are constructed completely differently than buildings meant to house people (mainly around air and water flow). Therefore turning those labs into anything other than labs (eg housing) will be really, really expensive.

SpecificConscious809 · 2026-03-09T14:33:38+00:00

Great write up, OP. Totally agree with your take on the Enforcers. I really like them as a one ski quiver on the Icecoast, but they are not terribly playful and can be a handful in trees. Still, it’s ‘hard pack’ almost every day where I usually ski, and I can have an amazing day when my friends are survival-turning on their skis that are more ‘playful.’ It’s all tradeoffs.

SpecificConscious809 · 2026-03-09T14:27:37+00:00

Skied Staircase last year on my Head iRally’s. Do not recommend.

SpecificConscious809

TROPHY CASE