LEADING EDGE BIO

Generative AI did not enter large pharmaceutical companies because the models suddenly became brilliant. It entered because Microsoft made AI feel governable. That distinction matters. For highly regulated organizations—pharmaceutical companies, academic research institutes, health systems, diagnostics companies, and legacy scientific institutions—the question was never simply, “Can AI help employees work faster?” The real question was: “Can we let employees use AI without lo

Strategy may be the most frequently used word in business. It is also one of the most misunderstood. In biotechnology, we often hear executives describe their strategy as becoming a leader in oncology, adopting artificial intelligence, expanding into cell therapy, or building a larger pipeline. These are ambitions. They are not strategies. A strategy is not simply deciding where you want to compete. It is deciding how you will create value in a way that competitors cannot

The next decade of biotechnology will not be defined by companies with the largest R&D budgets. Nor by those pursuing the broadest pipelines. It will belong to organizations that make disciplined strategic choices while remaining open to scientific innovation wherever it emerges. The winners will know what to build. What to partner. What to license. What to acquire. And perhaps most importantly, what not to pursue. Strategy has always been about making choices.

For years, the biotechnology industry has searched for the elusive "longevity drug." Not a treatment for diabetes. Not another cardiovascular therapy. Not simply a weight-loss medication. A therapy capable of fundamentally extending healthy human life. Few would have predicted that the first credible candidate might emerge from one of the most commercially successful drug classes in pharmaceutical history. GLP-1 receptor agonists. Originally developed for diabetes and later t

Sometimes the most profound scientific discoveries don't come from billion-dollar laboratories or the latest artificial intelligence platform. Sometimes they come from an orangutan. Researchers recently documented something remarkable. A wild Sumatran orangutan named Rakus was observed chewing the leaves of a medicinal vine into a paste and carefully applying it to a large wound on his face. He repeated the treatment, covered the wound with additional plant material, and with

When I first entered the neuroscience field over twenty years ago, we weren't talking about artificial intelligence. Gene therapy was still considered experimental. Neurodegenerative diseases were widely viewed as some of the most difficult problems in medicine. Looking back today, what strikes me isn't simply how much the science has advanced. It's how many different vantage points I've had the privilege of experiencing along the journey. I've seen neurological disease throu

No single organization can realistically become the global leader across every emerging technology while simultaneously advancing hundreds of clinical programs. That reality has fundamentally changed how pharmaceutical companies compete. The companies most likely to lead the next decade of innovation will not necessarily invent every breakthrough themselves. They will build the best external innovation engines.

Every January, the JPM Healthcare Conference provides a glimpse into where our industry believes the future is heading. Some years were dominated by immuno-oncology. Others by gene therapy. Last year, however, two themes repeatedly surfaced in conversations across boardrooms, partnering suites, and hotel lobbies: Artificial intelligence. And aging. At first glance, they appear to be unrelated. One is a technology. The other is biology. I believe they're converging toward on

Why Freedom in Biotechnology Depends on More Than Great Science Every Independence Day reminds us that freedom is rarely about the absence of rules. It is about creating systems that allow people to build, create, and pursue ambitious ideas. Biotechnology is no different. Scientific innovation has never been more powerful. Artificial intelligence is accelerating discovery. Humanized animal models have transformed antibody development. Gene editing has become increasingly prec