Insights
From an advisor who's still building hands-on. The stuff that doesn't make it into pitch decks or board papers.
134 posts
7 May 2026 · 3 min read
Most AI-first techbios are modeling clinical costs that are roughly half of what they will actually face — and the capital required to put an AI-derived molecule in front of a patient has roughly doubled within the lifespan of one mRNA company. Discovery cost reductions are real and welcome, but the binding constraint sits elsewhere.
5 May 2026 · 3 min read
Capital depth, role mix, and integration target. Three signals that separate a real pharma AI capability build from a press-release pilot dressed up as a strategic partnership.
30 Apr 2026 · 3 min read
The FDA's first real-time clinical trials don't just promise faster reviews — they insert a new infrastructure layer between sponsors and the agency. I break down what that architectural shift means for clinical development.
28 Apr 2026 · 4 min read
OpenEvidence has withdrawn from the EU and UK citing regulatory uncertainty around the EU AI Act, making the geography of clinical AI access officially American. I break down what this means for US and European pharma, and why the AI Act's first observable market effect may be pushing physicians toward less-grounded AI alternatives.
16 Apr 2026 · 3 min read
Last week, OpenAI made two moves in pharma within 48 hours — a flagship enterprise deal with Novo Nordisk and the launch of GPT-Rosalind — and the sequencing tells a deliberate story about how they're building a verticalised commercial infrastructure for life sciences. Having sat on the pharma buyer side, I break down what that cadence actually accomplishes.
14 Apr 2026 · 3 min read
The hyperscalers are moving on drug discovery from every direction — Anthropic acquired Coefficient Bio, and AWS just launched Amazon Bio Discovery with 40+ biological foundation models and integrated CRO partners. I still don't think the commercial model of pharma is under major threat, but the R&D part is clearly heating up massively.
9 Apr 2026 · 3 min read
Rock Health quietly retired the AI deal category in their Q1 2026 digital health report. The reason: the distinction between AI-enabled and non-AI digital health no longer holds. AI is table stakes. The companies pulling in nine-figure checks share something else — workflow integration depth.
7 Apr 2026 · 4 min read
Most coverage frames the Coefficient Bio acquisition as a valuation story: $44M per head, a 38,000% return, eight months old, no product, no revenue. All true. All missing the point. Anthropic bought the scientific decision layer.
7 Apr 2026 · 3 min read
Boehringer Ingelheim's new AI and machine learning center in London signals something more specific than another pharma AI announcement — pharma is starting to build permanent capability hubs, not just buy software deals. My bet is that by 2028, the companies with serious in-house computational capability will look structurally different from the ones that outsourced both talent and hardware.
2 Apr 2026 · 3 min read
CRO stocks dropped sharply on AI fears: IQVIA, Medpace, Charles River. The market may be right that AI changes trial economics. It’s wrong about where the disruption lands. CROs are infrastructure companies, and AI should make them more valuable, not less — if they can break free from the cost-plus model.
31 Mar 2026 · 3 min read
Eli Lilly’s third Insilico deal in three years: $115M upfront, up to $2.75B in milestones, plus royalties. The progression from software licensing in 2023 to a $2.75B commitment in 2026 tells the real story. The signal for the rest of the AI drug discovery space is harder to read — deals like this concentrate pharma attention on proven platforms.
26 Mar 2026 · 3 min read
A company you’ve most likely never heard of just raised $787M for AI-driven biologics. The headline number is striking. Sanofi’s trajectory — partner to repeat customer to investor in under twelve months — tells you more about the platform than any press release. The Delaware-incorporated, Beijing-operating structure is the emerging architecture for Chinese AI biotech going global.
23 Mar 2026 · 3 min read
Verily raised $300M, ended Alphabet’s controlling stake, and changed its legal name to Verily Health Inc. The capital matters. The structural change matters more. In healthcare, ownership structure is part of the product. As a personal anecdote, I stopped using my Fitbit the moment Google took over.
19 Mar 2026 · 3 min read
Five days separated Microsoft’s Copilot Health launch from Satya Nadella restructuring Copilot leadership. The official story is coherence and strategic focus. The architecture is compelling. But architecture isn’t execution. The real question is whether Microsoft can actually ship it.
17 Mar 2026 · 2 min read
Roche just announced pharma's largest hybrid-cloud AI factory, combining 2,176 new NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs with an existing footprint that now exceeds 3,500 across the U.S. and Europe. But after years of watching these waves from inside pharma, the pattern is clear: the announcement is the easy part — the hard part is getting a large organization to actually change how it works.
10 Mar 2026 · 4 min read
Three big AI drug discovery launches in 90 days: Boltz, IsoDDE, OpenFold3. Every benchmark was built by the team that built the model. The real question isn’t which model has the best benchmark. It’s whether discovery teams have a rigorous internal framework to evaluate any model that shows up. The real moat is evaluation discipline.
5 Mar 2026 · 3 min read
The FDA quietly granted Breakthrough Device Designation to a generative AI chatbot — not a diagnostic, not a scoring tool. An LLM that talks to post-surgical patients twice daily and escalates red flags. No GenAI device has ever received FDA authorization. This becomes the test case.
3 Mar 2026 · 2 min read
Lab-in-the-loop gets talked about like it’s a model problem. The Roche/Novartis/Microsoft panel at health.tech | global summit Basel made the real point clearer: it’s an operating model problem. Most orgs are at Level 1–2 maturity, and that’s already useful — the first big value isn’t more hits, it’s faster, more confident kill decisions.
26 Feb 2026 · 3 min read
Clarivate is selling its LS&H division — $390M in revenue, down 7% YoY, stock at $1.69. Decision Resources and Cortellis defined pharma intelligence for decades. GenAI-native platforms are now structuring, querying, and synthesizing across the same data at a fraction of the cost. When organized access to information is your moat, and AI organizes information better than you, that’s not a strategy problem. That’s an existential one.
24 Feb 2026 · 3 min read
Europe keeps asking “will AI in pharma R&D mean fewer jobs?” That’s the wrong question. The right one is who captures the value. Adoption is real but structurally slow. TechBio reshapes the pipeline economy. Data hunger grows. The real risk: while Europe debates headcount, the platforms and IP get built elsewhere.
19 Feb 2026 · 2 min read
Two pharma-AI deals in two weeks, two completely different architectures. Takeda paid $1.7B for Iambic. Now Merck skips techbio entirely and runs its AI models inside Mayo Clinic’s secure data environment. The architecture behind the Merck deal is what matters.
19 Feb 2026 · 1 min read
The AI-in-healthcare debate keeps swinging between “AI is going to take over everything” and “AI is useless in a medical setting.” Neither is useful. What the field actually needs are external neutral benchmarks on specific clinical tasks. Congrats to Rory Davidson and team for bringing one to market.
17 Feb 2026 · 2 min read
Barely a month goes by without another billion-dollar AI discovery deal. But Takeda’s deal with Iambic isn’t about buying AI — it’s about acquiring binding intelligence. If it works, portfolio strategy shifts from option value through volume to option value through precision. The hard part is industrializing it.
10 Feb 2026 · 3 min read
The Gulf has three things most emerging life sciences ecosystems lack: sovereign capital, speed of decision making, and political will. What it still needs is the operational layer that turns investment into outcomes — and an investor base that understands the life sciences risk profile.
29 Jan 2026 · 3 min read
Hologen, Eric Schmidt’s stealth biotech-AI venture, is raising $150M at an $850M pre-money on a promise of 100% returns in 12 months. The pitch is closer to financial underwriting than AI product development. Here’s what would convince me it’s more than narrative.
22 Jan 2026 · 2 min read
NVIDIA and Eli Lilly are putting $1B into a co-located Bay Area lab where Lilly scientists and NVIDIA engineers build drug discovery models side by side. Not a typical AI partnership. The real story is closed-loop discovery, and the moat is the loop, not the model.
20 Jan 2026 · 3 min read
I just completed my first peer review — on a healthcare AI paper — under journal rules that explicitly forbid AI assistance. Peer review is slow, strained, and imperfect. And it now actively forbids the tools that could make it better. Will this model survive the next decade?
15 Jan 2026 · 3 min read
I taught myself to code as a teenager, then spent 25 years away from it. This week I tried Claude Cowork — agentic AI for non-coders — and shipped a working Chrome extension over lunch.
13 Jan 2026 · 3 min read
Everyone is framing the new healthcare AI launches as ChatGPT vs Claude. That’s the wrong comparison. The real story is consumer memory vs reimbursement workflows — two completely different bets on where AI lock-in actually gets built.
8 Jan 2026 · 2 min read
OpenAI just launched ChatGPT Health (waitlisted). I can’t access it from Europe yet, but I’ve been using ChatGPT for surprisingly complex Swiss health insurance reimbursement scenarios. The personal health AI category is emerging in real-time, and OpenAI may have a real shot where Apple has tried for years.
6 Jan 2026 · 2 min read
Insilico Medicine closed 2025 with a ~US$293M HKEX IPO and opened 2026 with an $888M oncology collaboration with Servier — two major pharma deals in two months that suggest repeatable demand for their AI drug discovery platform.
5 Jan 2026 · 2 min read
I'm sharing my 5 bets for AI in Healthcare and TechBio in 2026 — from ambient scribes becoming table stakes to a TechBio Series B shakeout accelerating. If one of these is wrong, I want to know which one and what would change your mind.
16 Dec 2025 · 3 min read
OpenAI is among the backers of Chai Discovery, a biotech founded in 2024 already valued at $1.3B — and I think the real question isn't whether their antibody design model works, but whether model-layer innovation becomes infrastructure or a durable moat.
11 Dec 2025 · 1 min read
My former colleagues at Novartis just signed a $1.7B deal with a seed-stage company — not for a drug or a molecule, but for targets. This signals a real shift in where pharma sees risk and is willing to pay in the value chain.
9 Dec 2025 · 3 min read
Most AI drug discovery decks assume chemistry will keep up — but small molecule chemistry is still slow, manual, and spread across vendors, which is where a lot of AI 'efficiency' quietly disappears. I look at why fixing chemistry first may be the real unlock, and at the teams finally treating it as the main problem to solve.
4 Dec 2025 · 1 min read
I joined a Health Tech Forward panel in Barcelona on AI regulation in healthcare, where I argued that outcome-based regulation — focused on what AI actually does for patients — is far more effective than layering a second horizontal tech framework on top of existing medical device rules.
1 Dec 2025 · 2 min read
MIT just open-sourced BoltzGen, a generative AI for protein binder design — but I don't think it disrupts AI drug discovery companies any more than Linux killed software. The moat was never the model; it's proprietary data, wet-lab validation, and pharma relationships.
27 Nov 2025 · 1 min read
I'm seeing AI strategy in healthcare fragment into at least four distinct regulatory realities — the US, EU, emerging Gulf markets, and China — and I'll be diving into what this means for innovation at Health Tech Forward in Barcelona on December 3rd.
24 Nov 2025 · 1 min read
I'm asking whether a truly "global" AI strategy is even possible in healthcare right now, given the increasingly incompatible regulatory playbooks emerging across the US, EU, and China. I'll be exploring this live at Health Tech Forward in Barcelona on December 3rd.
20 Nov 2025 · 1 min read
Jeff Bezos just bet $106M on Profluent, a company using frontier AI models to design proteins that don't exist in nature — and I break down exactly what makes these models 'frontier' and why it matters for programmable biology.
13 Nov 2025 · 1 min read
AbbVie is quietly unwinding its 11-year longevity bet with Google's (Alphabet's) Calico Life Sciences — a $1.5B collaboration started in 2014 around aging and age-related disease. I don't think this particular setback signals something more fundamental, but it raises real questions about where dedicated drug development in longevity is headed.
6 Nov 2025 · 1 min read
After working with both global pharma leaders and early-stage AI firms, I've seen a pattern: partnerships, done right, are the only scalable route to real-world adoption of AI.
5 Nov 2025 · 1 min read
I'm hosting a round table on AI in Pharma on Nov 27 at Zühlke HQ in Schlieren (Zurich) with practitioners who actually ship — covering what works, what breaks, and what's next. If you lead R&D, data science, clinical, commercial, or IT in life sciences, this one's for you.
4 Nov 2025 · 1 min read
Eli Lilly just moved from renting compute to owning it — 1,000+ Blackwell B300 GPUs in an on-prem DGX SuperPOD in Indianapolis. Their TuneLab initiative could turn R&D IT from a cost center into a deal channel, and it's further proof that pharma is finally taking AI seriously.
30 Oct 2025 · 1 min read
At the Global Health Exhibition in Riyadh, I moderated two panels bringing together top investors and operators to explore how AI can move from pilot to platform across pharma and care delivery — and the consensus was clear: execution, not technology, will define the winners of the next wave of digital health.
27 Oct 2025 · 1 min read
AI implementation in healthcare in the KSA is progressing at a breathtaking speed — I was inspired by Saad Alhuzami's case study on the MOH Cortex project at Global Health Exhibition, covering agentic AI, ML modeling, digital twins, and care orchestration.
23 Oct 2025 · 1 min read
The Menlo Ventures report on AI in healthcare confirms that the sector is now one of the fastest adopters of enterprise AI, with ambient scribes leading the charge — but commoditization and pricing pressure are already reshaping the competitive landscape. My bet for the next battlefield is RCM.
22 Oct 2025 · 1 min read
I'm hosting a round table on November 27 in Schlieren, Zurich, bringing together pharma and Big Tech leaders to discuss what actually works — and what still fails — when applying AI in R&D. Expect candid, unscripted lessons on moving from pilot to platform, data governance, and where GenAI is genuinely helping in discovery, trial design, and safety.
21 Oct 2025 · 1 min read
Many think GenAI will replace data standards — I argue the opposite: for AI in healthcare to be trustworthy, GenAI makes standards like SNOMED and LOINC more critical than ever.
8 Oct 2025 · 3 min read
I joined an inspiring panel this morning at BioTechX with investors from Flagship Pioneering, Hikma Pharmaceuticals, MTIP, Lauxera Capital Partners, and Archimed to discuss where we stand on the journey of cracking biology and health with AI. From agentic AI and defensible moats to the tech-bio platform vs. pipeline dilemma and whether we're in an AI bubble, the conversation covered the full frontier.
6 Oct 2025 · 1 min read
I attended an inspiring talk from Sergei Yakneen, CTO at Isomorphic Labs, at BiotechX2025 in Basel — and it's clear that Google's Alphabet subsidiary is really onto something with their AlphaFold3-powered approach to AI drug discovery at scale.
6 Oct 2025 · 1 min read
I attended an exciting panel on GenAI's impact in preclinical development, featuring voices from Novartis, Insilico Medicine, and INVIDIA. Key themes included the balance of AI opportunity and risk, the power of robotics combined with AI, and the ongoing challenge of data organization and institutional memory in the lab.
6 Oct 2025 · 1 min read
I attended an interesting talk by Roche's Pierre Fischer at BioTechX about their Data Mesh Operating model, covering domain ownership, a dedicated data marketplace, and how their platform reduced dashboard delivery from months to under a week.
25 Sept 2025 · 1 min read
The NHS is building AIR-SP, a national AI screening cloud that lets every trust plug into shared, real-world trials — starting with a breast-cancer study involving nearly 700,000 women. I think the overall approach makes sense, and I'd love to see other countries adopt something similar.
22 Sept 2025 · 1 min read
Flagship Pioneering's Lila Sciences just raised $235M in Series A to build AI-and-robotics-powered "science factories" — and I think the full-stack automation thesis is more compelling than AI-alone approaches for drug discovery.
16 Sept 2025 · 1 min read
Healthcare AI is moving from answers to actions — and model evaluation must shift from simplistic multiple-choice testing to comprehensive workflow safety and governance. I'm convinced that agentic workflow automation will be a massive opportunity in healthcare and life sciences.
9 Sept 2025 · 1 min read
In Dubai at WHX Tech, AI in healthcare isn't just being debated — it's being deployed. A new health-data sandbox is launching so startups can work with de-identified EMR under clear governance, build quickly, and prove safety.
4 Sept 2025 · 1 min read
I joined Sonal Rupani on Dubai Eye 103.8's The Reboot to explore real-world AI applications in healthcare and the ethical considerations we need to address as we move forward — a perfect primer for my panel on real-world AI usage in healthcare at WHX Tech Dubai.
7 Aug 2025 · 1 min read
Hinge Health is up 50% in share price since its IPO while posting 55% revenue growth — a rare combination that digital health genuinely needs more of. I'm asking which other digital health companies are quietly building towards a breakout moment like this.
5 Aug 2025 · 1 min read
Meta is facing up to $190 billion in damages after users of the period-tracking app Flo alleged their sensitive health data was shared with Meta for targeted advertising. I see this as a timely reminder for all of us to treat our health data with far greater care.
21 Jul 2025 · 1 min read
I explore why bigger isn't always better when it comes to data in AI — and why, in healthcare especially, the real problem is data quality, not quantity. Curated, structured, interoperable data is what will make trustworthy clinical AI possible.
18 Jul 2025 · 1 min read
It's great to see more unicorns in health tech AI — OpenEvidence is now valued at more than $3.5B after a $210M Series B backed by Sequoia, Kleiner Perkins, GV, and Coatue. GenAI is clearly starting to move beyond the pilot phase into daily clinical practice, and the AI hype cycle in health tech venture investment shows no signs of ending just yet.
15 Jul 2025 · 1 min read
Participating in the SNOMED International board meeting in Manchester reinforces my conviction that SNOMED CT is absolutely critical for healthcare AI. As a board member chairing the Technology and Innovation Committee, I see firsthand how this global standard transforms fragmented health data into a reliable, structured foundation for AI innovation.
18 Jun 2025 · 1 min read
I joined an interesting discussion on AI in drug discovery and development at HLTHEurope2025 with panelists from Novartis, Roche, and OWKIN. From real-world evidence generation to biomarker development and regulatory considerations, the conversation covered both the opportunities and challenges of bringing AI into pharma.
17 Jun 2025 · 1 min read
I joined an insightful panel discussion at HLTHEurope in Amsterdam on what it really takes to be a founder in healthcare. From finding a mission you're obsessed with, to building the right team and support network at home — here are the key lessons that stood out.
17 Jun 2025 · 1 min read
I share key learnings from the AIspotlight at HLTHEurope2025 on federated data and learning collaboration, where speakers from Roche, Charité, and beyond made the case for combining insights across institutions. A recurring theme: this shift in how we interact with health data requires clearer explanation and specific use cases for stakeholders.
16 Jun 2025 · 1 min read
Anne Wojcicki's company TTAM has outbid Regeneron with a $305M offer to buy back 23andMe's assets — and I'm intrigued about where this goes next.
12 Jun 2025 · 1 min read
One of the biggest paradoxes in health data is that the most valuable insights are locked within the most sensitive and difficult-to-access information — a natural brake on innovation. I explore how the new Atropos Health and Databricks partnership takes a meaningful step toward solving this.
10 Jun 2025 · 1 min read
I look at Omada Health's IPO following Hinge Health's successful public debut, noting that the valuation reflects a new market reality prioritizing a clear path to profitability over hyper-growth. I'm encouraged by the early performance but remain cautious about declaring the IPO window truly open again given ongoing macroeconomic uncertainty.
6 Jun 2025 · 1 min read
I share a quick update on ELSA, the FDA's new GenAI tool powered by Anthropic's Claude, and why I genuinely appreciate the FDA's decision to launch it despite early imperfections — because in healthcare, the biggest challenge with new tech isn't the technology, it's the change management.
3 Jun 2025 · 1 min read
The FDA is now using GenAI to review regulatory dossiers — and I think that's a good thing. Pharma companies have already been using generative AI to craft submissions, so it makes perfect sense for regulators to leverage the same technology on their end.
22 May 2025 · 1 min read
After several recent trips to the GCC, I've seen firsthand how the UAE and Saudi Arabia are putting serious momentum and capital into building AI-first healthcare ecosystems. This week's Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi partnership with G42 and Oracle Health is one to watch.
15 May 2025 · 1 min read
I joined fellow panelists from Saudi FDA, WEF, LEAN, and others at the menatelehealth conference in Riyadh to discuss how AI is reshaping virtual care. We explored Saudi Arabia's regulatory sandbox approach, high-impact use cases from LLMs in critical care to agentic AI, and the infrastructure enabling it all.
13 May 2025 · 1 min read
Last week at the AI in Clinical Development Summit 2025 in NYC, I joined a panel tackling the timeless build-or-buy question for pharma AI in clinical development. Our consensus: a "build with" strategy — co-developing with selected strategic AI startup partners — strikes the right balance between speed, fit, and long-term value.
24 Apr 2025 · 1 min read
Biolinq has raised $100M to challenge the CGM market with an intradermal patch that uses microneedles and a built-in LED display — and I break down what makes their approach genuinely different from devices like Abbott's FreeStyle Libre.
15 Apr 2025 · 1 min read
I attended AbuDhabiGlobalHealthWeek and heard compelling talks on the UAE's AI and healthcare ambitions. The region is investing heavily in data infrastructure, international R&D partnerships, and the funding ecosystem needed to attract global investment.
8 Apr 2025 · 1 min read
I'm traveling back from several intense days at the quarterly SNOMED International Management Board meeting in Oslo, where I chair the Technology and Innovation Committee. Here's why internationally aligned clinical standards remain vital — and are even essential — for effective AI in healthcare.
27 Mar 2025 · 1 min read
Bill Gates predicts AI will replace many doctors and teachers within 10 years — but I think he may be underestimating how hard it is to fix systems that are already deeply broken. The technology will be ready; whether our dysfunctional healthcare systems will truly change is another question.
20 Mar 2025 · 1 min read
We're increasingly relying on AI and LLMs in medical settings — from self-diagnosis to clinical co-pilots — but there are still no good benchmarks for how well these models actually perform in real clinical practice. I think we have a long way to go before LLMs become truly reliable thought partners in our medical journeys.
18 Mar 2025 · 1 min read
AI in healthcare shouldn't aim to replace professionals — its true potential lies in enhancing their ability to deliver quality care. I explore how Wysa's merger with April Health exemplifies the broader industry trend of combining human empathy with AI-enabled tools in mental healthcare.
11 Mar 2025 · 1 min read
Even Epic — not historically known as an innovation powerhouse — is now fully embracing AI agents. I share highlights from an interview with Epic's SVP of R&D and offer my take on what their commitment to AI and open collaboration means for healthcare.
6 Mar 2025 · 1 min read
I attended a very insightful panel at the EPA conference in Amsterdam on how global healthcare reforms are impacting local market access strategy. Modeling demands are becoming more challenging, joined Health Technology Assessments are increasingly the rule, and — as Gavin Lewis of Novartis put it — your access strategy is becoming your entire enterprise strategy.
4 Mar 2025 · 1 min read
I've written several times about the power of AI agents, and I remain convicted that they will bring a fundamental shift in the way we work — including in healthcare — in the next five years. Healthcare may be sleeping on this shift, but the time to start exploring Agentic AI is now.
18 Feb 2025 · 1 min read
A proposed US bill could allow AI to legally prescribe medications — a significant shift beyond today's administrative and decision-support roles. I see this as a potential turning point in how AI is integrated into clinical practice, though regulatory and safety challenges remain.
13 Feb 2025 · 1 min read
I explore whether AI is truly rewriting the rules of drug discovery or just riding a wave of hype — from Latent Labs' €48M funding round to the real-world limits of fully in silico drug development. I genuinely believe we'll see the first 100% AI-discovered drug hit the market within the next 5–7 years.
30 Jan 2025 · 1 min read
I attended the FutureofHealth summit in Dubai today, where leaders from PureHealth and GE HealthCare shared their visions for agentic AI in primary care and oncology — including the bold idea that primary care could become free over time.
29 Jan 2025 · 1 min read
Neko Health's $260M raise is a signal that prevention may finally be getting the prime-time moment it deserves. I reflect on why this investment matters for a part of healthcare that has long been underfunded despite being the most cost-effective way to manage disease.
29 Jan 2025 · 1 min read
I attended a really insightful panel discussion on longevity at WHX Dubai, and it challenged my assumption that longevity was mostly a US west coast buzzword. The UAE's patient safety-first, scientifically validated approach — combining genomics, AI, and precision medicine — could be a genuine game changer.
28 Jan 2025 · 2 min read
Everybody is talking about DeepSeek and how it just erased a sizeable chunk of NVIDIA's market cap — so I asked DeepSeek R1 itself what this means for AI's future energy consumption. The answer is nuanced, and I'm quite impressed with what it came up with.
28 Jan 2025 · 1 min read
It currently feels like a new techbio AI drug discovery play is launched on a weekly basis, showing the AI hype in this field isn't over yet. I'm curious to see how this new generation of companies will fare compared to previous biotech platform plays, given that many steps like MedChem and Toxicology still take time even with AI acceleration.
27 Jan 2025 · 1 min read
I share interesting insights from Microsoft's Chief Medical Officer David Rhew, M.D. at ArabHealth in Dubai, covering GenAI's role in healthcare — from ambient scribes saving admin time to multimodal models, agentic AI, and the critical importance of trust in adoption.
21 Jan 2025 · 1 min read
Wrapping up three productive days in Orlando following my first meeting as Chair of SNOMED International's Technology and Innovation Committee, I came away with one clear conviction: as we move into an era of AI-enabled healthcare systems, SNOMED CT as a common global language will be more crucial than ever for accurate, interoperable communication between humans and machines.
14 Jan 2025 · 1 min read
One of the first tech-bio deals out of JPM this year sees Insilico Medicine and MENARINI Group deepen their partnership around an AI-discovered asset — not an AI platform — potentially worth up to $550M. I'm curious which business model will emerge as the leader for AI-techbio companies: selling AI platforms and services, or developing your own pipeline.
9 Jan 2025 · 1 min read
I recently gave Gemini Deep Research a try after it came up in three separate conversations, and I'm glad I did. It produces detailed, long-form research papers with referenced sources in minutes — a great tool for quickly getting a comprehensive grasp of a new topic.
12 Dec 2024 · 1 min read
I've written before about AI agents and their transformative potential to take action rather than just engage in conversation — and the industry is rapidly validating this vision. From Meta's Yann LeCun to Salesforce's Marc Benioff to Anthropic's Claude, the signals are clear: if you're not experimenting with AI agents today, you're falling behind.
10 Dec 2024 · 1 min read
A lawsuit against VC firm Mohr Davidow Ventures over the collapse of billion-dollar healthcare startup HealthTap is a sobering case-study in the dark side of startup financing and the complex power dynamics between founders, employees, and investors. As an independent board member, I see these tensions regularly — and they'll only increase as 2021 valuations come back down to reality.
5 Dec 2024 · 1 min read
Interesting insights on the use of GenAI in Healthcare, from Bayer's Guido Mathews, Medtronic's Irina Evstifeeva and Karista's Amine Benmoussa at Health Tech Forward in Barcelona. From drug discovery and digital twins to medical imaging and workflow efficiency, the panel surfaced where GenAI is maturing — and where it still has a long way to go.
4 Dec 2024 · 1 min read
I attended a fascinating panel at Health Tech Forward on Automation in Clinical Trials featuring in-silico trials and digital twins. Speakers from QuantHealth, a leading VC, and United Therapeutics shared how AI is cutting trial lengths, replacing animal models, and opening new doors for orphan disease research.
28 Nov 2024 · 1 min read
Cradle, a Netherlands-based generative AI biotech startup, just raised a $73M Series B — a round that's truly big by EU standards and signals the explosive growth of AI-driven drug discovery. I see real parallels to the rise of Veeva, and the coming years promise to be game-changing.
20 Nov 2024 · 1 min read
Oura's $5B valuation following its deal with Dexcom signals a powerful convergence of continuous glucose monitoring and consumer wearables — and I think it could be a game-changer for health optimization well beyond diabetic patients.
18 Nov 2024 · 1 min read
Formation Bio, in collaboration with Sanofi and OpenAI, has introduced Muse, an AI-powered tool designed to optimize patient recruitment in clinical trials. I think it will be fascinating to watch how this three-party collaboration — Big Pharma, Health Tech, and Large Tech — evolves, and I wouldn't be surprised to see more of these partnerships emerge in the coming year.
14 Nov 2024 · 1 min read
I'm seeing remarkable productivity gains using AI daily, but some industry insiders are signaling we may be approaching the limits of the current 'scale-up' approach to LLMs. Here's my take on the three emerging pathways that could define what comes next.
28 Oct 2024 · 1 min read
Just back from the Global Health Exhibition in Riyadh, I was inspired by the 'can-do' mindset driving healthcare advancements across the GCC. AI and digital health solutions are making a tangible difference in patient outcomes, and Saudi Arabia is fast becoming a global example of digital transformation in healthcare.
22 Oct 2024 · 1 min read
I'm honored to announce my appointment as a Management Board member of SNOMED International, following three inspiring days in Seoul at the Management Board and business meetings. I'm passionate about advancing data standards like SNOMED CT to drive AI-powered healthcare transformation and improve patient outcomes worldwide.
16 Oct 2024 · 1 min read
I fed Google's NotebookLM the entire 144-page EU AI Act and the result was a genuinely jaw-dropping podcast-style conversation that made learning feel effortless — this might just be the future of learning with GenAI.
9 Oct 2024 · 1 min read
A great talk from Gilead's Jeremy Zhang at BiotechX on scaling LLMs like OpenAI and Claude to the clinical portfolio — covering key use cases from protocol design to automated document generation, and the real hurdles of stakeholder skepticism and regulatory clarity.
9 Oct 2024 · 1 min read
I attended a fascinating panel on the Hype vs Hope of AI in Drug Discovery at BiotechX in Basel this morning. The conversation surfaced some sharp insights on where AI is genuinely moving the needle in drug discovery — and where the hype still outpaces reality.
9 Oct 2024 · 1 min read
At BiotechX in Basel, Gilead's Patrick Loerch outlined what it really takes for AI to create value in biopharma — from systemic business impact to decision-making influence. I found his take on centralized vs. distributed AI models, regulatory coordination, and clinical value chain opportunities particularly compelling.
8 Oct 2024 · 1 min read
Being the Health Care AI Czar of the most powerful economy in the world sounds impressive — but maybe think twice. I share a great STAT podcast episode on Micky Tripathi, the acting HHS Chief AI Officer, and the daunting reality of his role.
7 Oct 2024 · 1 min read
I usually avoid hyperbole, but Google's NotebookLM genuinely amazed me — I uploaded my publication on 15 Key Insights in HealthTech & Big Pharma Partnerships and it generated a full podcast with two virtual hosts discussing the key takeaways.
17 Sept 2024 · 1 min read
OpenAI recently unveiled o1 — nicknamed Strawberry — which some reports suggest scores an IQ of around 120, putting it on par with or above many humans. I explore what makes this model different and why its ability to "think" before responding could be a game changer in expert-level fields.
11 Sept 2024 · 1 min read
While Europe is still trying to implement an electronic patient record, Tencent in China is building an end-to-end digital healthcare system — a vision I saw firsthand when we at Novartis built our strategic partnership with Tencent back in 2018.
10 Sept 2024 · 1 min read
Another significant $120M funding round has landed in AI-driven drug discovery, this time with Lilly leading alongside Nvidia and key VC funds. I'm optimistic that we could be witnessing the birth of the next Amgen, Genentech, or Biogen — powered by AI.
6 Sept 2024 · 1 min read
Neko Health's AI-powered body scan is making waves as celebrities line up for the £300 check-up at its new London branch. I think these technologies are about enhancing healthcare, not replacing it — complementing public systems with early, accessible diagnostics.
5 Sept 2024 · 1 min read
I've been watching AI agents emerge as the next major frontier in GenAI, and the tipping point — when agents interact more with other agents than with humans — could be sooner than we think. From Amazon's aqui-hire of Adept to coding a working Pong game in under a minute with Claude 3.5, the shift from "brains in a jar" to machines that take real action is already underway.
3 Sept 2024 · 1 min read
Founder Mode is taking over VC Twitter, and I'm curious whether the excitement is justified. Having worked in traditional corporate environments, I've seen how conventional management often stifles true innovation — and I think a different approach might be key for founders.
29 Aug 2024 · 1 min read
Big Pharma is increasingly jumping on the direct-to-consumer bandwagon in the U.S., with Lilly Direct, Pfizer-For-All, and others following the trail blazed by Ro and Hims/Hers. I'm asking whether this could be the moment when Pharma's business model truly evolves — and whether these companies can finally engage directly with patients.
26 Aug 2024 · 1 min read
Following Pear's bankruptcy, their FDA-cleared DTx apps reSET and reSET-O have been relaunched by PursueCare — and I think it's a timely reminder that we may have been overly optimistic about digital therapeutics succeeding independently, and that go-to-market strategy deserves an open mind.
22 Aug 2024 · 1 min read
I'm not entirely surprised by the buzz around Roche potentially selling Flatiron — transitioning to a truly data-driven, RWE-focused business model is no small feat for large pharma, and the bigger question is who will ultimately lead the large-scale RWE and curated healthcare data space.
20 Aug 2024 · 1 min read
I'm curious to see how the AI drug discovery space will evolve following the Recursion/Exscientia merger — and I'd personally bet on the traditional biotech drug-development model with AI enablement, rather than a pure SaaS or CRO play.
6 Aug 2024 · 1 min read
A US judge has just ruled that Google is a "monopolist" — and I find it interesting that this judgment is arriving at a time when Google is probably challenged more than ever across its core business segments. It highlights both the importance of tech regulation and how slow the antitrust machinery moves compared to the speed of evolution in the tech sector.
2 Aug 2024 · 1 min read
Microsoft now formally lists OpenAI as a competitor, despite having invested $13 billion into the company — a move that may be tied to SearchGPT or antitrust optics. The strategic manoeuvres around these massive LLM-race investments are captivating.
26 Jul 2024 · 2 min read
OpenAI's formal entry into search could mark one of the most fundamental shifts in the internet economy — and I think Google's senior team has real reason to be concerned. I've already moved away from Googling for most things, and SearchGPT may accelerate that shift for millions of others.
25 Jul 2024 · 1 min read
I'm tracking the continuous emergence of new AI foundation models — from Mistral Large 2 to Meta's Llama 3.1 — as a billion-dollar arms race. My prediction: three types of models will emerge, and for healthcare, specialised imaging models like Microsoft's collaboration with Mass General Brigham are the ones to watch.
22 Jul 2024 · 1 min read
I've been following the debate around whether enabling patient interactions with GenAI is a net positive or negative — and a recent study suggests machines can sometimes outperform overworked hospital staff on empathy, understandability, and tone.
19 Jul 2024 · 1 min read
CB Insights has just released a report on the AI readiness of different hospital systems in the US, and I'd love to see a similar study done for Europe. From my experience working with startups in the field, France, Spain, and several Scandinavian markets appear ahead of places like Germany or Switzerland.
16 Jul 2024 · 1 min read
Rock Health's 2024 Weight Care Experience Survey highlights that consumers favor multi-approach weight loss strategies, with exercise and diet most popular and virtual coaching services like Noom and WW widely used. I see this as the archetype of a major behavioural health challenge where well-executed digital solutions with smart AI components should be a perfect complement to the current GLP-1 craze.
11 Jul 2024 · 1 min read
I flagged some encouraging digital health investment stats recently, but a key leading indicator — how much VCs are raising for their funds — is not looking great, across all domains. Without a trend breaker in IPO and M&A exit opportunities, it will become even harder for healthtech companies to raise money in the future.
8 Jul 2024 · 1 min read
I came across a TIME article by Sam Altman and Arianna Huffington worth reading amid all the AI noise — they're building an AI health coaching app called Thrive AI that combines best practices of behaviour change with AI.
2 Jul 2024 · 1 min read
PharmaTech is increasingly becoming a category on its own, with PitchBook launching a dedicated research report and Q1 2024 seeing $749 million in funding across 39 deals. I think it's worth examining how they define the category, given the interesting mix of CDMO/CMO activities and AI enablement they cluster together.
1 Jul 2024 · 1 min read
AI agents — systems that don't just converse but actually do things for you — are the next frontier after GenAI, and I predict we'll see the first pilots for administrative tasks in healthcare within the next 2–3 years.
28 Jun 2024 · 1 min read
It is really fascinating to see how Amazon is iterating its way into healthcare. After many failed attempts, the acquisition pathway using One Medical as a platform — combined with a continuously improving online pharmacy model — seems to be working.
27 Jun 2024 · 1 min read
Despite the challenging fundraising environment, we are witnessing significant investments in AI-enabled drug discovery and development. Formation Bio's nearly $400M Series D and Xaira Therapeutics' emergence from stealth mode signal intensifying competition among major VC funds to lead in AI-powered biotech innovations.
1 May 2024 · 2 min read
I just got back from two packed days at LSX2024 in London, where I joined panels on pharma's path to launching digital health products and shared how QuantHealth will transform clinical trial design. Here are my key takeaways from the healthtech track.