Inside the FDA: Vinay Prasad’s first podcast since leaving the admin on drug approvals, COVID, and market-moving science This week the pod has Dr. Vinay Prasad for his first interview since leaving as director of CBER, the FDA's vaccine division. With over 300k followers on X and one of the top science podcasts in the world, he's one of the most listened-to experts in the field. He might also have as many enemies as fans: biotech executives, certain patient groups, and even Trump's own administration are split on him. His statements have moved markets multiple times, and we are pretty sure there were a few hedge fund interns tasked with combing through all his podcast episodes the day he got appointed. The pod gets into what it was like inside the administration, why he had to pause his podcast (government officials can't run their own media), and his famous thesis on evidence standards for drugs, especially rare disease ones. The pod dives into a full COVID retro: how shutting down schools and masking was approached, where Vinay thinks the evidence actually pointed, and what he would have done in Fauci's position. They go deep on specific studies, like the Bangladesh mask study, and what might alter the effectiveness of a mask. The conversation even gets philosophical: your personal right to decide what goes into your body: whether it's vaccines, transgender drugs, or something else, versus the general public good, as well as what doctors think is in your best interest. Finally, the pod asks Vinay what America's healthcare system would look like if he created it. You might be surprised by his affinity towards Bernie and a lot of generally populist policies that could fall on the left or the right, like getting lobbyist money out of FDA decisions. They also cover some recent news in the space: Moderna popped ~150% after its Merck-partnered mRNA cancer vaccine hit its Phase 3 goals in melanoma, the first personalized mRNA cancer treatment to get there. Vinay breaks down what the press release does and doesn't say.Kalshi announced you'll be able to trade on clinical trials, a more granular way to trade the results of therapeutics that you currently, by proxy, trade on public markets, especially with smaller biotech stocks. Sign up at kalshi.com/sign-up?referral=getthecheck and get $10 when you trade using our code.Laws around peptides, and what the future of compounded pharmacies looks like as pharma cracks down on GLP-1s.Follow the pod on Instagram and X @getthecheckpod. 00:00 Introducing Vinay Prasad, the FDA's former vaccine chief03:05 Why government officials can't have their own media04:19 Vinay’s words are moving public markets (a few times!)05:38 How Plenary Session became the #1 medical podcast07:06 Vinay got famous for hot takes on COVID10:25 Society weighing education years vs COVID deaths12:49 How do you run experiments mid-epidemic15:40 What made COVID different than the flu17:32 Do masks work23:38 The ethics of a medical study26:34 Does Vinay believe in vaccines32:02 Vaccines vs personal autonomy33:24 Children and gender transition meds37:58 Can a parent say no to cancer treatment for their child41:27 Lobbyist money in FDA decisions43:24 What a drug company has to prove to go to market45:30 Free $1B startup idea from Vinay47:57 Why biotech can make money on bad drugs49:31 What's the FDA's conflict of interest49:58 Vinay's controversies: WSJ calls him the grim reaper51:13 Under Vinay, the FDA makes drug trial data public53:13 The former FDA vaccine chief on Kalshi's clinical trial markets58:57 Should the FDA be elected01:00:08 Why is American healthcare so broken01:01:19 Peptides01:02:06 How is Reta so accessible01:03:00 Why hasn't pharma cracked down on compounded pharmacies01:04:35 Why don't more people talk about right to try01:05:10 Who do patient advocacy groups represent01:08:49 Vinay supports universal healthcare?!
