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I’m a virologist & I learned from this analysis. Our team is transitioning to working from home for foreseeable future. Least we can do- lucky our jobs permit it. Thank you doctors/nurses for showing up. “Coronavirus: Why You Must Act Now” by @tomaspueyo
link.medium.com/CpLWoe61K4
Critical that US recognizes how heartless its insurance system’s been for decades & fixes it. They deflected blame to drug companies but really insurance just didn’t want to do its job. Not covering #insulin hurts a diabetic. That sucks. Not covering #coronavirus hurts everyone.
While you’re social distancing, if you end up dwelling on who to blame & what to fix about healthcare so patients can afford their medicine, I’ve got the book for you. The Great American Drug Deal: A New Prescription for Innovative and Affordable Medicines amazon.com/dp/1733058915/…
For my job, I’m deep into cutting edge biotechnology. This crisis has mobilized the industry to direct all its tools at #coronavirus. That’s how we got HIV under control & cured HCV. We can beat covid19 & maybe other coronaviruses while we’re at it. Social distance until then.
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Peter Kolchinsky
@PeterKolchinsky
Remember how PharmaBro/Turing price-jacked Daraprim? Now there’s a very slightly cheaper generic- hardly a fix. Old drug used by few patients can’t rely on price competition to keep its cost down. This market failure calls for a better solution. 46brooklyn.com/news/daraprim
I propose “contractual genericization” in my book. thegreatamericandrugdeal.com Basic idea is that US contracts with one or two US-based suppliers to reliably supply the American public with this & other little-used generic drugs.
High quality manufactures would compete with originator to win contract for whole market but originator would at least have to guarantee an inexpensive supply as a backstop. Max price would be, let’s say, 2x cost of production, so still profitable.
Read 18 tweets
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Peter Kolchinsky
@PeterKolchinsky
Viruses are hoody-wearing hackers, but SARS2 is hardly the cleverest. My votes go to HIV, rabies, and herpes. Here are top 10 virus hacks (each a reason I love virology & science in general)... #1) many viruses employ signal jamming, preventing an infected cell from...
...notifying other cells they are infected. Infected cells normally release molecules called cytokines to communicate w/ other cells (eg lock your doors, call the cops!) & some viruses make proteins that bind those cytokines up, basically preventing cell from calling for help.
2) Also, cells normally display pieces of everything they are making inside of themselves on their surface, like a factory with a display window. Immune cells walk by to look in the window to make sure there’s no funny business going on, ie no virus bits in the window.
Read 43 tweets
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Peter Kolchinsky
@PeterKolchinsky
We just posted updated TechAtlas Covid map. See what’s changed (highlighted in yellow) since just 9 days ago. If you saw so-so Ad5 vaccine data out of China (published in Lancet), map will reassuringly put that into context of related vaccines (left side). racap.com/covid-19
As we get more data, we’ll mark certain programs as failed or successful. In the coming months, expect plenty of failure. But do take in the totality of this effort and take heart that biotech will solve this, quickly. Programs & companies may fail, but our society will succeed.
And definitely be sure to check out the Strategic Overview that goes with the map. It’s really meant for Task Forces and other leaders, but anyone might appreciate that when we are creating so many chess pieces, we need to think about how to use them together to best effect.
Read 4 tweets

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