For the past few weeks, I’ve been thinking a lot about the new wave of vaccine data facing off against emerging variants and what it means for ending the pandemic.
Thinking more about how effective vaccines are shaping up to be - especially in the face of emerging variants - Andrew Dunn, Aria Bendix, and Hilary Brueck teamed up to write about the reality of the coronavirus sticking around forever.
In their reporting, they found both reasons to be concerned and reasons to be optimistic about our future.
Hilary Brueck, Shelby Livingston, and Allana Akhtar teamed up to outline the ways to fix the inequity that's played out. It all comes down to trust, access and transportation to vaccinations, and better data collection and communication.
As part of the chat, the VCs spoke about the various roads to an exit for a private company these days.
We saw that play out again over the past week, as Oscar Health - the original buzzy health insurance startup - dropped its S-1 filing as it prepares to go public.
Shelby and I spent our Friday evenings poring over the filing so you didn't have to.
Consumer genetics giant 23andMe's plans to go public via SPAC - an alternate route to an initial public offering. That has the industry rethinking the potential for sequencing companies that map out everything from DNA to proteins. (Seeing sema4, a genomics and clinical data company, share its plans for a SPAC that'll value the company at $2 billion, only reinforced that new look.)
Patricia Kelly Yeo took a look at what's ahead for sequencing companies, speaking with CB Insights about how the future lies in drug development rather than genetic testing kits consumers send in to learn more about their ancestry or health.
But not everyone is sold on SPACs. Biotech startups, a reliable group that tend to IPO with relative ease, aren't clamoring for an alternative route to the public markets.
Allison DeAngelis spent her week talking to industry experts about the rise in biotech SPAC shell companies looking to make a deal. They're meeting resistance and intense competition.
