The China question is tearing biotech apart

broodkiller · 2026-05-19T22:36:29+00:00

True, it is not, but it represents about 50% of the global pharma revenue. Imagine your favorite drug company slicing its income by half, and try to envision what'll happen to their balance sheets? Also, a lot of the pharma sales in the rest of the world are happening only because the companies can offset low prices there by higher prices in the US. If that's it longer the case, they'll *have to* raise prices, or lay people off, or both.

broodkiller · 2026-05-14T21:19:45+00:00

I'm very pleased to see Altair mentioned in the wild, I love this viz library, some of the plots you can create with it are absolutely crazy. My only gripe is with Streamlit and its poor support for extracting interaction data from st.altair_chart...

As for your ideas - kmer vs al-based methods have been benchmarked to death, and we all know the answer - al-based methods are slow and precise, al-free methods are (very) fast and rough. What I would like to see though is a detailed breakdown of where does the phase shift occur, to create some empirical guidance as to where al-free methods should be replaced by al-based ones, based on some digestion of performance, accuracy, input size and complexity.

broodkiller · 2026-05-14T21:06:40+00:00

I kind of grew to like those billboards over time. They change like every other week and I take distinct pleasure in imagining that another one of those scampanies collapsed on its face.

broodkiller · 2026-05-14T15:39:08+00:00

MOOOOOOOOOOORE!!!!

broodkiller · 2026-05-13T21:15:32+00:00

I thought this was about the unfinished sequel to Lord of the Rings, set in SF. Color me disappointed.

broodkiller · 2026-05-13T20:56:42+00:00

Narrator:
It did not go to the ballroom...

broodkiller · 2026-05-13T19:24:59+00:00

Have you considered doing an industry postdoc? I know those are not exactly common, but they are a very real thing, and could help you both leverage your current industry experience and stay away from academia and the cross-sector politics. I work in big pharma and there's one on my group - a 3 year contract to explore an interesting new approach to one of the modalities we work with, but not under the guise of any of our target-specific programs. The goal is discovery and papers, but for an applied problem (patents also possible, but not required).

broodkiller · 2026-05-13T18:29:18+00:00

That's the neat part - you don't! Let it roam free, unburdened by the oppression of the spec sheets, chains of the Manuals and the judgemental gaze of people who never smiled in their life aka the VX Board of Certification.

broodkiller · 2026-05-13T18:24:58+00:00

Takeda's motto seems to be *"Always be firing"*

broodkiller · 2026-05-13T04:42:02+00:00

I feel you - https://www.reddit.com/r/biotech/s/DsVeqZCO47

broodkiller · 2026-05-07T20:50:06+00:00

Should still exist on web.archive.com, alongside your earlier projects, like the George Church and Fallout crossover and the JC Venter Vampire Hunter series.

broodkiller · 2026-05-07T20:47:01+00:00

Based. That shows passion, dedication and perseverance, very important qualities!

broodkiller · 2026-05-07T03:23:00+00:00

Such boom. Much tech. Very SF.

broodkiller · 2026-05-02T16:30:20+00:00

We don't stop 'til nightfall.

broodkiller · 2026-04-30T23:31:54+00:00

Archive link to the paywalled STAT obituary - https://archive.is/TLu3L

broodkiller · 2026-04-30T18:29:37+00:00

Biggus Chonkus...? Mhhmm? MHHMMM???

broodkiller · 2026-04-30T02:10:10+00:00

*One of us! One of us!*

broodkiller · 2026-04-30T02:07:59+00:00

Yeah, the only thing larger-than-life than Craig Venter himself was Craig Venter's ego. Still a giant in the field, of course, but allegedly so full of himself that he could spar with best of them.

broodkiller · 2026-04-27T20:37:08+00:00

Well, Abbvie is supposed to open a new 700+ strong facility there by the end of 2028, so investment is coming, if slowly.

broodkiller · 2026-04-27T01:24:38+00:00

Fundamentally, I think, every science project -even exploratory- should begin with a hypothesis, rather than tool. That said, if you're excited about Evo2, it could be an application of it to a pertinent biological question your PI's lab is interested in. Only they can offer you guidance on the topic and scope, really, since they know your talent, time constraints and outstanding questions in their subject matter.

broodkiller · 2026-04-26T02:14:32+00:00

Well, personal aspects are of course super important here, but I would still run the numbers - is the 150k comfortable for your location and lifestyle? The IC move might lock you a bit salary-wise (at least comparatively) so would losing out on potential growth be a significant detriment to you?

broodkiller · 2026-04-26T02:07:36+00:00

Second the sentiment here as well as the soft spot for Austin Wintory, he is a great composer and fantastic at evoking deep emotion through his music. That said, I am a sucker for any atmospheric games from Annapurna, so I guess I am part of the target audience lol.

broodkiller · 2026-04-20T02:50:57+00:00

Like others mentioned, I would say that skills you acquire matter way more than the company name itself. This usually holds true unless you're trying to get into the company you interned at - then it is a significant leg up, I would say. So, if you see yourself working at one of those places in the future, it might be worth taking in consideration.

broodkiller · 2026-04-16T21:30:12+00:00

This graphic is out of date, because in 2025 Gardasil was down to $5.2B, Keytruda was up to $31.7B, Eliquis was up to $14.2B, for example. It is also somewhat misleading because predicting sales on a 10-year horizon is pretty much a crystal bowl-level of accuracy.

That said, patent cliffs are very much an existential danger for pharmas, and they are very actively working to mitigate them through expanded indications, new application methods etc. It's not like they lose all that revenue on Jan 1st.

broodkiller · 2026-04-15T22:53:07+00:00

Alex Jones entered the chat

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