Paul Bleicher
@pbleic.bsky.social
MD/PhD, Academia => Biotech => Pharma/HealthIT => PE/VC. Immunology, medicine,dermatology, clinical trials, EDC, RWE, AI
Gas prices have dropped. Substantially. It happened by October 2024.
November 7, 2025 at 7:12 PM
Gas prices have dropped. Substantially. It happened by October 2024.
Happening all over the country. When an expensive drug becomes widely used, price is no longer about making up research costs for that and other failed drugs. It is about excess profits, and demands a substantial price drop.
August 15, 2025 at 2:18 PM
Happening all over the country. When an expensive drug becomes widely used, price is no longer about making up research costs for that and other failed drugs. It is about excess profits, and demands a substantial price drop.
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times”
August 14, 2025 at 1:06 PM
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times”
I dare you. Read the plot. Comment and tell me what you think.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_Can%...
1935 novel by Sinclair Lewis
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_Can%...
1935 novel by Sinclair Lewis
August 13, 2025 at 5:11 PM
I dare you. Read the plot. Comment and tell me what you think.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_Can%...
1935 novel by Sinclair Lewis
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_Can%...
1935 novel by Sinclair Lewis
Reposted by Paul Bleicher
Omg.
My prediction is that in that scenario, he blames the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which puts out employment data. Calls them corrupt, run by Democrats, out to get him. Fires people there, insists their numbers cannot be trusted, White House puts out its own fictitious data to make Trump look good
August 1, 2025 at 11:51 PM
Omg.
Thwarted in efforts to reduce the NIH budget, the White House has adopted a new tactic. Force the NIH to pay out a multi-year grant all in the first year, exhausting the NIH budget with ~60% fewer grants. Labs will close everywhere and future year budgets can be spent on junk science.
New, from an anonymous NIH insider: Trump is being pushed to spend more NIH money. The White House is ordering NIH to do multi-year budgets for awards. This budget trick means fewer awards, fewer labs funded, and lower paylines for researchers. 🧵
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/alert-the-...
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/alert-the-...
Alert: The Trump administration is quietly slashing new NIH grant awards, and it's not via the budget
NIH’s sudden move to multiyear grant funding is forcing shocking cuts in the number of grants funded. This is an effective budget cut. It's bad, folks.
donmoynihan.substack.com
July 29, 2025 at 10:46 AM
Thwarted in efforts to reduce the NIH budget, the White House has adopted a new tactic. Force the NIH to pay out a multi-year grant all in the first year, exhausting the NIH budget with ~60% fewer grants. Labs will close everywhere and future year budgets can be spent on junk science.
Reposted by Paul Bleicher
New, from an anonymous NIH insider: Trump is being pushed to spend more NIH money. The White House is ordering NIH to do multi-year budgets for awards. This budget trick means fewer awards, fewer labs funded, and lower paylines for researchers. 🧵
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/alert-the-...
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/alert-the-...
Alert: The Trump administration is quietly slashing new NIH grant awards, and it's not via the budget
NIH’s sudden move to multiyear grant funding is forcing shocking cuts in the number of grants funded. This is an effective budget cut. It's bad, folks.
donmoynihan.substack.com
July 28, 2025 at 2:21 PM
New, from an anonymous NIH insider: Trump is being pushed to spend more NIH money. The White House is ordering NIH to do multi-year budgets for awards. This budget trick means fewer awards, fewer labs funded, and lower paylines for researchers. 🧵
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/alert-the-...
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/alert-the-...
Reposted by Paul Bleicher
few outcomes, except for 99% of FDA-approved drugs, 174 recipients of 104 Nobel Prizes, training ~30K MDs and ~10K PhDs per year to enter the workforce, and a 34% reduction in age-adjusted cancer deaths since 1990 -- the largest decrease in history
Now do the Department of Defense budget, Andrew.
“Washington has thrown billions at NIH for decades with little accountability and few measurable outcomes,” HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon said in a statement to Future Pulse.
www.politico.com/newsletters/...
“Washington has thrown billions at NIH for decades with little accountability and few measurable outcomes,” HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon said in a statement to Future Pulse.
www.politico.com/newsletters/...
NIH spending battle’s ripple effect
www.politico.com
July 29, 2025 at 3:26 AM
few outcomes, except for 99% of FDA-approved drugs, 174 recipients of 104 Nobel Prizes, training ~30K MDs and ~10K PhDs per year to enter the workforce, and a 34% reduction in age-adjusted cancer deaths since 1990 -- the largest decrease in history
How do they have any idea which of these was important for making sure our drugs are safe and effective? Do they even ask?
endpts.com/doge-shutter...
endpts.com/doge-shutter...
DOGE terminates lease on FDA quality lab in St. Louis and 29 other sites
DOGE says that it has terminated the leases of 30 FDA offices and buildings, including a 52,000 square-foot St. Louis-based lab that operates under the FDA's Office of Pharmaceutical Quality.
endpts.com
March 4, 2025 at 10:28 PM
How do they have any idea which of these was important for making sure our drugs are safe and effective? Do they even ask?
endpts.com/doge-shutter...
endpts.com/doge-shutter...
Terrible description of the movie.
March 3, 2025 at 4:31 AM
Terrible description of the movie.
Stunning song for our times. How could he have known exactly how it feels today when he wrote it in 1974?
Listen to the words!
American Tune
youtu.be/O6cfYS-LVEQ?...
Listen to the words!
American Tune
youtu.be/O6cfYS-LVEQ?...
Paul Simon - American Tune (1974)
YouTube video by CHEM GLOP
youtu.be
March 3, 2025 at 12:31 AM
Stunning song for our times. How could he have known exactly how it feels today when he wrote it in 1974?
Listen to the words!
American Tune
youtu.be/O6cfYS-LVEQ?...
Listen to the words!
American Tune
youtu.be/O6cfYS-LVEQ?...
A song for our times:
An American Tune
…
And I don't know a soul who's not been battered
I don't have a friend who feels at ease
I don't know a dream that's not been shattered
or driven to its knees
An American Tune
…
And I don't know a soul who's not been battered
I don't have a friend who feels at ease
I don't know a dream that's not been shattered
or driven to its knees
March 2, 2025 at 2:11 AM
A song for our times:
An American Tune
…
And I don't know a soul who's not been battered
I don't have a friend who feels at ease
I don't know a dream that's not been shattered
or driven to its knees
An American Tune
…
And I don't know a soul who's not been battered
I don't have a friend who feels at ease
I don't know a dream that's not been shattered
or driven to its knees
Why was this done as a public meeting in front of the press?
February 28, 2025 at 6:20 PM
Why was this done as a public meeting in front of the press?
Wow. Government work is pretty much the major role of Covington, although I believe that the vast majority of it is for private industry's interactions with the government, not with the government itself.
President Trump said that he would strip security clearances from lawyers at a prominent Washington law firm aiding Jack Smith and end any federal government work the firm may have.
Trump Takes Aim at Law Firm Aiding Jack Smith
The move, signed by President Trump on Thursday, is a major escalation of his promise to pursue perceived foes.
www.nytimes.com
February 27, 2025 at 12:44 AM
Wow. Government work is pretty much the major role of Covington, although I believe that the vast majority of it is for private industry's interactions with the government, not with the government itself.
One disease or another, this attitude about vaccines in general and mRNA vaccines in specific is eventually catch up to us in a major way.
SCOOP > The Trump administration is weighing pulling Moderna's contract to create bird flu shots, part of a bigger effort to question spending on messenger RNA-based vaccines
Madison Muller, @rileyraygriffin.bsky.social and @ikeswetlitz.bsky.social
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Madison Muller, @rileyraygriffin.bsky.social and @ikeswetlitz.bsky.social
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Trump Team Weighs Pulling Funding for Moderna Bird Flu Vaccine
US health officials are reevaluating a $590 million contract for bird flu shots that the Biden administration awarded to Moderna Inc., people familiar with the matter said.
www.bloomberg.com
February 27, 2025 at 12:14 AM
One disease or another, this attitude about vaccines in general and mRNA vaccines in specific is eventually catch up to us in a major way.
You can start worrying about other things now. The asteroid probability of collision with Earth is now essentially zero. It does have about a 1% chance of colliding with the moon though.
February 25, 2025 at 12:02 PM
You can start worrying about other things now. The asteroid probability of collision with Earth is now essentially zero. It does have about a 1% chance of colliding with the moon though.
The single best article I have read on the irreversible damage that is being done to US science and technology. The effects will reverberate for decades to our children and grandchildren.
www.technologyreview.com/2025/02/21/1...
www.technologyreview.com/2025/02/21/1...
The foundations of America’s prosperity are being dismantled
Federal scientists warn that Americans could feel the effects of the new administration's devastating cuts for decades to come.
www.technologyreview.com
February 24, 2025 at 9:46 AM
The single best article I have read on the irreversible damage that is being done to US science and technology. The effects will reverberate for decades to our children and grandchildren.
www.technologyreview.com/2025/02/21/1...
www.technologyreview.com/2025/02/21/1...
Can you imagine diplomats at the State Department and agents at the CIA or FBI having to report their 5 “accomplishments” this week to Musk??? The government is not Twitter, and the tactics he used there are a disaster when used at the biggest government in the world.
This is the text of an email sent last night by a top State Dept. official to employees telling them not to respond to the OPM email that went out across the US government. Officials at other agencies sent similar emails, so there might’ve been a coordinated effort against Musk.
February 23, 2025 at 11:47 AM
Can you imagine diplomats at the State Department and agents at the CIA or FBI having to report their 5 “accomplishments” this week to Musk??? The government is not Twitter, and the tactics he used there are a disaster when used at the biggest government in the world.
Reposted by Paul Bleicher
DEVELOPING: An American Airlines regional jet has crashed into the Potomac River after colliding with a helicopter, a source familiar with the situation tells NBC News, causing the closure of Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
Live updates: Plane crashes into Potomac River after collision with helicopter near Reagan National Airport
The latest news and live updates on the plane crash into the Potomac River.
www.nbcnews.com
January 30, 2025 at 3:05 AM
DEVELOPING: An American Airlines regional jet has crashed into the Potomac River after colliding with a helicopter, a source familiar with the situation tells NBC News, causing the closure of Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
Reposted by Paul Bleicher
For more than 450 days, we have been waiting for the 98 hostages held by Hamas in Gaza to be released.🎗️
January 16, 2025 at 8:00 AM
For more than 450 days, we have been waiting for the 98 hostages held by Hamas in Gaza to be released.🎗️
It’s been good while it lasted. Waving goodbye to the Y chromosome. In 4.5M yrs, humans may be extinct or broken up into distinct non-interbreeding populations.
theconversation.com/sex-genes-th...
theconversation.com/sex-genes-th...
Sex, genes, the Y chromosome and the future of men
The Y chromosome, that little chain of genes that determines the sex of humans, is not as tough as you might think. In fact, if we look at the Y chromosome over the course of our evolution we’ve seen ...
theconversation.com
January 9, 2025 at 11:57 AM
It’s been good while it lasted. Waving goodbye to the Y chromosome. In 4.5M yrs, humans may be extinct or broken up into distinct non-interbreeding populations.
theconversation.com/sex-genes-th...
theconversation.com/sex-genes-th...
Wow. I can't stop staring at this. It explains so much about the US economy, specifically the polarization of income and disappearance of the middle class.
The decline of blue-collar and farming work was a major source of social upheaval that we’re still coping with today. A more recent trend (and one sure to be accelerated by gen AI) is the decline of office & administrative work, another traditionally middle-class vocation.
January 7, 2025 at 2:20 PM
Wow. I can't stop staring at this. It explains so much about the US economy, specifically the polarization of income and disappearance of the middle class.
Years ago, I was hit by this. Sent my daughter to urgent care at CVS for a strep test. CVS was closed when she got there, so she went to an urgent care in a local hospital that charged $800(!).
Facility charges for outpatient visits are a big problem.
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/01/07/b...
Facility charges for outpatient visits are a big problem.
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/01/07/b...
He thought his physical therapy would cost $25 per session. Then came the bill for $4,515. - The Boston Globe
It turns out the facility where a Newton college student was treated for an ankle injury is an outpatient department of Wentworth-Douglass Hospital, which charges "hospital visit" rates.
www.bostonglobe.com
January 7, 2025 at 2:14 PM
Years ago, I was hit by this. Sent my daughter to urgent care at CVS for a strep test. CVS was closed when she got there, so she went to an urgent care in a local hospital that charged $800(!).
Facility charges for outpatient visits are a big problem.
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/01/07/b...
Facility charges for outpatient visits are a big problem.
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/01/07/b...
You know Handel’s Messiah. Now listen to Handel’s version of the Chanukah story circa 1746
youtu.be/3blzcHAVkz4?...
youtu.be/3blzcHAVkz4?...
Georg Friedrich Händel (1685-1759) - Judas Maccabaeus
YouTube video by German Baroque Music & More
youtu.be
December 26, 2024 at 11:56 PM
You know Handel’s Messiah. Now listen to Handel’s version of the Chanukah story circa 1746
youtu.be/3blzcHAVkz4?...
youtu.be/3blzcHAVkz4?...