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Peter Kolchinsky Profile picture
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Mar 14 • 4 tweets • 3 min read
So let's get this right... @statnews elevates someone who would talk the US (as they have other countries) out of paying for a life-saving drug like Trikafta instead of recognizing the courage and intellect of someone like Gunnar Esiason @G17Esiason...
...who has #CF, considers himself fortunate to be able to get Trikafta in US thanks to insurance that hasn't yet totally succumbed to bad math, & advocates for the value of the lives of patients elsewhere, urging other countries not to fall for bad math.
realclearhealth.com/articles/2022/…
Should the staff at STAT recognize that they, like all of us, are or will someday be patients, they might not honor math that undervalues their lives and lives of their readers.
Be better. Just because math is complicated doesn't mean it's right - buckle down and learn it.

Bad math can ruin lives (just as patients w/CF). You owe it to yourselves & your readers to learn a bit more about the math and its consequences. @NPLB_org

nopatientleftbehind.org/about/value-of…

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More from @PeterKolchinsky

Peter Kolchinsky Profile picture
Mar 12
Some say "urging calm" makes people panic more; stay quiet. I disagree.

The source of panic is uncertainty. People are afraid to talk about risks of a run on their bank in case they give everyone ideas. But everyone already is wondering about their bank. So let's talk.
SVB's failure is not some punishment for tech elite who can handle losing their money... because it's not about the elite and b/c depositors almost certainly won't be losing their money.
Though banks fail all the time affecting individuals and small businesses every year, they tend to be small regional banks. SVB is the largest since WaMu in 2008, and some of the most innovative companies in the US are simultaneously affected b/c that was SVB's specialty.
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Peter Kolchinsky Profile picture
Feb 24
One year since Russia attacked Ukraine, don’t take a moment of silence. Give real thought to year 2.

See how aid works in detail by reading @directrelief‘s report. See where money & medicines come from & where they go and how. Let that guide what you do directrelief.org/2023/02/ukrain…… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
Direct Relief is THE MAIN non-profit in the world capable of taking in, storing, and distributing donated medicines & other medical supplies to regions in need during peacetime, war, & catastrophe.
A year ago, some of us in biotech gave to DR to buy generators for hospitals. Several months ago, we donated to enable purchase of ambulances. All the while, @tevapharmeurope, @PerrigoCompany, @novartis, @pfizer, & many others have been donating literally tons of medicines.
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Peter Kolchinsky Profile picture
Feb 18
How much do you think ICER math (which Democratic Party often cites) would say US should spend on drugs/vaccines against smallpox in case of outbreak/pandemic?

(I estimate it spends ~$100m/year)

@statnews @SenateHELP @icer_review @IAmBiotech @PhRMA @SchaefferCenter @NPLB_org
Hint: ICER takes a very simplified approach to valuing a medicine that requires that someone be sick so they can be treated and get a measurable benefit in the present to score any value. If no one is sick, there is no benefit (no effectiveness).
So what happens when you divide even $1 by zero? That’s right. The equation breaks. Most people would say “but we are paying for those smallpox medicines/vaccines in case of an outbreak or pandemic”. That’s called risk reduction. It reflects that we value peace of mind.
Read 26 tweets
Peter Kolchinsky Profile picture
Feb 17
M&A is a necessary process of resorting products, cash, & people to where they are most highly valued. Whether the moment feels like sex or autophagy, it's disruptive to people who may wonder what their next job will be. We can help with that.
racap.com/the-right-job#…
There are tons of great jobs across our ecosystem. Many are at companies in the RA portfolio. When a company is going through M&A, at invitation of CEO & HR team, we presented to their team a Talent Briefing of many of the relevant jobs in the RA ecosystem.
And even Talent Briefings aside, if you are interested in learning more about those positions across our portfolio at anytime, here's the spot: open-positions.racap.com/?company=portf…
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Peter Kolchinsky Profile picture
Jan 13
Tension among insurance, innovator, & patients w/CF over access to life saving medicine is gutting. B/c Vertex was providing copay assistance, insurance plans stopped covering its drug. So Vertex cut back. Other innovators & their investors watching: what will patients do?
Here's how insurance and innovation are supposed to work together. Can't have most biomedical innovation w/ insurance, and insurance wouldn't be as valuable w/o treatments/cures to pay for. They are intertwined.
Insurance can ignore that value of medicine like Trikafta is much greater than seemingly high price society pays now. In the long run, this medicine will be generic and still saving lives. Vertex has transformed how humanity will think of CF forever. nopatientleftbehind.org/about/value-of…
Read 11 tweets
Peter Kolchinsky Profile picture
Dec 20, 2022
This article represents failing of drug industry to make its case to public & failing of journalists to grasp what they are really writing about.
Hospitals are laundering their expenses through drugs prices at the expense of innovation. @IAmBiotech @WSJ wsj.com/articles/340b-…
How can public ever understand this stuff if journalists missed the extreme absurdity of what they are writing about when they looked right at it.

Let's break it down:

A. Drug companies are forced by 340b law to sell their products to certain hospitals for very low prices.
B. Those hospitals & clinics can then prescribe & provide those drugs to patients while charging FULL price to government plans & insurance, which hit the patients with deductible and other OOP costs, that some can't afford.

C. Patients then blame drug companies. Absurdity #1.
Read 25 tweets

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