Insights / Function
Field notes on Strategic Planning in healthcare — operating models, portfolio bets, and tradeoffs inside biotech and health-tech leadership.
58 posts in Strategic Planning
28 Jul 2026 · 1 min read
Eli Lilly just took an equity stake in Oura this month, and I think it's one of the more interesting big pharma moves into digital health because Lilly gets retention and behavioral data leverage without ever touching the biometric data itself.
21 Jul 2026 · 2 min read
Bristol Myers Squibb just claimed the most powerful AI supercomputer in life sciences—the third pharma company to do so in nine months—and I think the real signal isn't the superlative, it's the demand curve behind it.
14 Jul 2026 · 1 min read
I'm marking my own homework on the five AI predictions I made for 2026: two hits, two partials, and one still too early to call at the halfway point.
2 Jul 2026 · 3 min read
Anthropic launched Claude Science on June 30, targeting neglected diseases, and I read it as deliberate dogfooding — the same path Claude Code took from internal tool to product. The real bet is that value in AI-bio accrues at the workflow and orchestration layer, not at the model weights.
30 Jun 2026 · 1 min read
John Jumper, the Nobel laureate behind AlphaFold, is leaving Google DeepMind for Anthropic — and when I read that move next to Anthropic's recent acquisitions, partnerships, and research hires, it's the direct research talent, not the board appointments, that will shape where this company lands in life sciences.
4 Jun 2026 · 3 min read
I run my AI advisory work on a private operating system I built myself — and actually using one of these "second brain" systems has taught me that stored volume matters far less than timing. The real step change isn't buying a generic tool; it's building a system around how you actually think and work.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.