Bioplatforms in 2025
and fake souls.
Bioplatforms, enablers et al.
So, NFX’s point on biotechs is:
having an candidate in trials is good, BUT
having a pipeline is even better.
Why?
Pipeline is an asset that can produce candidates in your area of focus (say, Alzheimer’s antibodies) or a broader one (e.g. Iktos, Atomwise, Exscientia etc.), omg isn’t this chart too pretty:
TLDR: teach a man to fish, he’ll be sated for a day until his bait goes old. Develop an AI-powered bait optimization pipeline, and you’ll be able to have more impact, in a shorter timeframe → be juicier for the investors.
New leanbois on the block
GLP- ligands are on the rise. Or, to be more precise - anything that can beat the current obesity epidemic:
New ones: Ozempic rivals, VRB-101/103 by Verdiva Bio (recently got a $400M+ Series A investment)
Once-weekly GLP-1 pill, and DACRA (amylin + calcitonin receptor agonist). I’ve already covered GLP-1 and weight regain, time for a short DACRA micro-edu block:
As per diagram, amylin has effects similar to glucagon in stomach emptying, satiation signaling (enhances the satiating effect of cholecystokinin (CCK))
Amylin also upregulates leptin sensitivity and energy expenditure (i.e. you eat less and get satiated faster)
Calcitonin is definitely connected to insulin activity, and calcium → kidneys, bones, liver; yet mostly ‘good’ effects are attributed to salmon calcitonin:
stimulates energy expenditure during food restriction
inhibits gastric emptying and gastrin release following a meal
reduce food intake and body weight in rat models of obesity and diabetes (chronic use)
displays superior binding affinity (compared to human) at amylin receptors with no discrimination between amylin and calcitonin receptors
So, going full circle: salmon calcitonin → dual agonist with potency at amylin and calcitonin receptors → led to development of DACRAs.
P.S. A note about weight regaining - grocery spending for GLP-1 users regains, too, after a year! Yet, it seems to indirectly increase supplements and healthy food sales:
It also found that GLP-1 weight loss users:
Reduced relative household spending on spicy foods, fatty proteins, and beverages with added sugar, and increased spending on vegetables, eggs, and nuts
Spent more on gum, mints, and non-chocolate candy to provide relief from the drugs’ side effects including bad breath and dry mouth
Increased spending on drinkware and water filtration versus non-users, which could be driven by hydration recommendations
Spent more on gastrointestinal products for relief from side effects of the medication
Spent less on sleep remedies, analgesics, home health care, and foot care products
Spent less on frozen foods and more in the produce and deli departments
Spent more on foods & beverages at drug stores, perhaps because they are going there regularly to pick up meds
So it looks like a net positive effect, right? Right?
A lesson to repeat: always account for second-order effects of an intervention. E.g. if you have a look at changed spending habits - remember that 1/8 of the US have tried these, and it can/will lead to a massive shift in sales. E.g. I’d reckon - say, fitness subscriptions will be on the rise (seems to be the case, especially the ‘quality’ ones).
News
SQLite facts as in "interesting"
SQLite is rad:
over one trillion SQLite databases in active use, despite being a team of three
The author, D. Richard Hipp, was writing software for a navy destroyer - and couldn’t let a server going offline to make the ship paralyzed; so he decided to write a local DB himself, during several months of hiring hiatus
There are over 600 lines of test code for every line of code in SQLite.
In place of a legal notice, here is a blessing:
For small amounts of data, SQLite is up to 35% faster than host’s native filesystem 🤡
AI Agents? Maybe dead internet much?
Fake life is getting a whole new spin:
TBH, I’m not prepared for that at all. The other use cases, e.g. an autonomous agent DAO - look a lot less creepy → they are interacting with the world, not creating deadweight content to be read by no one (except other agents).
Some of non-Meta ones are already popular: Aitana Lopez is at 340k+ followers.
PS. O-kay, Meta’s been busy again - deleting the profiles.
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