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Health:Further

Health:Further

By: Marcus Whitney & Vic Gatto
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Every week, healthcare VCs and Jumpstart Health Investors co-founders Vic Gatto and Marcus Whitney review and unpack the happenings in US Healthcare, finance, technology and policy. With a firm belief that our healthcare system is doomed without entrepreneurship, they work through the mud to find the jewels, highlight headwinds and tailwinds, and bring on the smartest guests to fill in the gaps.

© 2025 Health:Further Economics Hygiene & Healthy Living
Episodes
  • 197 - Frontier AI as Foreign Policy, Medicare Expands Weight-Loss Drugs, and Health Systems Face the Outpatient Reckoning

    197 - Frontier AI as Foreign Policy, Medicare Expands Weight-Loss Drugs, and Health Systems Face the Outpatient Reckoning
    Jul 4 2026
    Vic and Marcus discuss slowing U.S. job growth, Meta's move into AI cloud infrastructure, record venture funding driven by AI, and what those trends mean for the technology sector. They examine Medicare coverage for weight loss drugs, proposed CMS changes affecting hospitals, Medicaid work requirement lawsuits, and the continued shift of care away from hospitals. They also cover major healthcare advances, including expanded gene therapy for children with sickle cell disease, AI-powered drug discovery partnerships, and the first FDA-approved Treg cell therapy. The episode concludes with the record-low U.S. death rate, stablecoin adoption, blockchain tokenization, and the growing AI competition between the U.S. and China.Story Lineup1 — In This Economy3:47 - Story 1: U.S. labor market cools sharply: June jobs report shows only 57,000 positions added [WSJ]7:14 - Story 2: Meta Is Planning a Cloud Business to Sell AI Computing Power [Bloomberg]2 — VC Deal Review10:30 - Story 1: Global startup investment surges to record $510B in H1 2026 as AI exits accelerate [Crunchbase News]12:40 - Story 2: Beeline raises $126M Series A extension on heels of $300M launch, bolsters autoimmune pipeline [Fierce Biotech]3 — Policy14:15 - Story 1: Medicare begins covering GLP-1 weight-loss drugs for seniors at $50/month out-of-pocket starting July 1 [WSJ]15:17 - Story 2: CMS targets 340B drug discount program and site-neutral pay in 2027 outpatient rule overhaul [Becker's Hospital Review]21:20 - Story 3: Twenty-six states sue Trump administration over Medicaid work requirements rule implementation [Healthcare Dive]4 — Health Payors28:59 - Story 1: Evernorth commits $100M through 2028 to AI-powered specialty pharmacy program expansion [MedCity News]5 — Health Systems30:28 - Story 1: 10-year outlook: outpatient volumes set to grow 20% while inpatient discharges rise just 7%, reshaping hospital economics [Becker's Hospital Review]32:45 - Story 2: Large health system EHR migrations collapse 40% year-over-year as Epic dominance and vendor delays lock in incumbency [Becker's Hospital Review]6 — Pharma & Novel Therapies37:55 - Story 1: FDA expands Vertex's Casgevy CRISPR gene therapy to children as young as 2 with sickle cell disease [Becker's Hospital Review]39:36 - Story 2: Takeda partners with Insilico on AI drug discovery platform worth up to $600M across multiple therapeutic areas [WSJ]41:21 - Story 3: Orca Bio's Tregzi becomes first FDA-approved regulatory T cell therapy for graft-versus-host disease [MedCity News]7 — About Health & Us / The Clinician's Voice43:45 - Story 1: U.S. Death Rate Falls to Its Lowest Point on Record [WSJ]8 — Web346:52 - Story 1: Open USD stablecoin launch backed by Visa, Mastercard, and Google challenges USDC/USDT incumbents [Decrypt Media]49:41 - Story 2: Ondo launches SEC-compliant tokenized ETF and equities with Ethereum settlement, signaling institutional crypto infrastructure maturation [The Block]9 — The AI Tracker51:28 - Story 1: Health systems pivot from proving AI efficacy to scaling implementations; inflection point for health tech adoption [Becker's Hospital Review]56:53 - Story 2: Anthropic unveils Claude Science AI workbench for pharma research execution ahead of anticipated IPO [MedCity News]59:52 -Story 3: New Chinese AI model matches Anthropic Claude performance; likely to reshape White House AI policy overhaul [WSJ]1:08:23 - Story 4: OpenAI proposes handing Trump administration 5% stake [FT]
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    1 hr and 16 mins
  • 196 - PCE at 4.1%, GLP-1s for Kids, and OpenAI's Custom Chip — Health:Further Weekly

    196 - PCE at 4.1%, GLP-1s for Kids, and OpenAI's Custom Chip — Health:Further Weekly
    Jun 27 2026
    Vic and Marcus discuss rising inflation, the AI-driven data center boom, and growing concerns about the long-term economic impact of artificial intelligence. They examine major healthcare venture funding rounds, the resurgence of biotech investment, Medicare policy changes, PBM scrutiny, rising healthcare spending driven by GLP-1 drugs, rural hospital transformation, chemotherapy drug shortages, new cancer treatments, and the growing use of Wegovy in children. The episode also covers Bitcoin's sharp decline, venture capital consolidation, and the future of healthcare innovation.Story Lineup1 — In This Economy1:59 - Story 1: PCE Hits 4.1% — The Iran War, the AI Build-Out, and a Fed Caught in the Middle [WSJ]7:13 - Story 2: AI Infrastructure Is Inflation's New Structural Driver [WSJ]16:17 - Story 3: AI Bubble Fears Trigger Nasdaq Rout; KOSPI Crashes 10% Overnight [Axios]18:02 - Story 4: Scott Bessent: Hamilton Inspires Trump Economic Statecraft [WSJ]2 — VC Deal Review20:33 - Story 1: Menlo Ventures Closes $3B Fund — Biggest Ever — on the Back of Its Anthropic Bet [TechCrunch]28:49 - https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/ai-and-machine-learning/assort-health-scores-120m-series-c-scale-voice-ai-agent-platform-healthcare 30:21 - Story 2: Cadence Closes $100M Series C at $1.23B Valuation for AI-Powered Chronic Care [MedCity News]31:33 - Story 3: Ollin Biosciences Hauls In $330M Series B to Challenge Roche's Vabysmo in Wet AMD [Fierce Biotech]3 — Policy32:34 - Story 1: U.S. Health Spending Hits $5.7 Trillion in 2025 — GLP-1 Costs Are a Primary Culprit [Healthcare Dive]34:43 - Story 2: 31 House Democrats Demand Transparency on CMS's AI Prior-Auth Pilot in Medicare [Healthcare Dive]4 — Health Payors38:35 - Story 1: Florida Opens Antitrust Probe Into CVS/Caremark as State-Level PBM Crackdown Accelerates [Healthcare Dive]43:07 - Story 2: Abarca Health and LucyRx Merge to Build a Scaled Independent PBM Alternative [MedCity News]44:33 - Story 3: Medicare Advantage at an Inflection: Reset or Retreat? [MedCity News]5 — Health Systems50:11 - Story 1: Cancer Chemo Shortages Force Hospitals to Consider Rationing [Becker's]52:33 - Story 2: Eli Lilly Halts 340B Discounts for Non-Compliant Hospitals, Triggering Legal Battle [MedCity News]55:39 - Story 3: States Are Using the $50B Rural Health Fund to Shrink Hospitals, Not Transform Care [Healthcare Dive]6 — Pharma & Novel Therapies57:38 - Story 1: FDA Approves Two New Drugs to Replace Chemo as First-Line Treatment for Triple-Negative Breast Cancer [WSJ]59:23 - Story 2: Pfizer's First Major ADC From the $43B Seagen Acquisition Fails Phase 3 [Fierce Biotech]59:47 - Story 3: AbbVie Pays $10.9B for Apogee to Challenge Dupixent in Eczema [Fierce Biotech]7 — About Health & Us / The Clinician's Voice1:00:39 - Story 1: Wegovy for Elementary Schoolers: Pediatricians Turn to GLP-1s as Childhood Obesity Rates Climb [WSJ]8 — Web31:03:47 - Story 1: Bitcoin Hits Multi-Year Low of $58K as BTC and ETH Each Post 20%+ Monthly Losses [CoinDesk]9 — The AI Tracker1:06:18 - Story 1: Anthropic Accuses Alibaba of Running a 'Brazen' Campaign to Illicitly Access Claude [WSJ]1:10:30 - Story 2 : https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/glm-52-why-im-replacing-opus-in-claude1:12:32 - Story 3: OpenAI Unveils 'Jalapeño' — Its First Custom AI Inference Chip Built With Broadcom [WSJ]1:13:05 - Story 4: X - Satya Nadella - "Frontier without an ecosystem is not stable." [X]
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    1 hr and 21 mins
  • 195 - Warsh's Fed, the Hormuz Deal, Anthropic's Export Ban, and the Retatrutide Black Market! Ft. Ash Shehata

    195 - Warsh's Fed, the Hormuz Deal, Anthropic's Export Ban, and the Retatrutide Black Market! Ft. Ash Shehata
    Jun 20 2026
    Marcus welcomes Ash Shehata, former KPMG executive and current Impact Advisors leader, as guest host for a wide-ranging discussion on healthcare, technology, finance, and policy. They examine the Federal Reserve’s evolving approach under Kevin Warsh, the economic implications of reopening the Strait of Hormuz, and SpaceX’s historic IPO alongside its reported Cursor acquisition. The conversation also covers the resurgence of biotech and pharmaceutical M&A, FDA flexibility around gene therapies, rural hospital transformation funding, information blocking enforcement, Medicare Advantage contract disputes, PBM transparency battles, smart hospital rooms, longevity medicine, GLP-1 coverage expansion for seniors, digital assets, tokenized stocks, and the growing role of AI across healthcare and society.Story Lineup1 — In This Economy2:34 - Story 1: Warsh's Fed Ditches Forward Guidance — Markets Brace for Hikes [NYT]New Fed Chair Kevin Warsh holds rates but abandons forward guidance at his first FOMC presser, sending rate-hike odds higher and rattling markets — a fundamental shift in central bank posture.Tension / discussion: Is Warsh's opacity a feature or a bug? Does removing guidance restore Fed credibility or introduce dangerous ambiguity for markets and borrowers?also: Axiosalso: WSJ6:22 - Story 2: U.S.-Iran Deal Reopens Hormuz, Sends Oil Prices Tumbling [NYT]Strait of Hormuz reopens under a U.S.-Iran MOU signed ahead of schedule, driving oil prices lower, gas below $4 nationally, and stocks higher — the biggest macro relief valve in months.Tension / discussion: How durable is this deal? A fragile MOU with Iran may give markets false comfort while the underlying geopolitical fault lines remain very much alive.also: Axiosalso: Axios11: 07 - Story 3: SpaceX Acquires AI Coding Agent Cursor for $60 Billion [WSJ]SpaceX deploys post-IPO capital in a $60B all-stock acquisition of Cursor, extending Musk's empire into enterprise AI tooling and setting a new benchmark for AI startup valuations.Tension / discussion: Does a $60B price tag for a coding agent represent genuine enterprise value or peak AI deal froth? And what does it mean that a rocket company is now a software conglomerate?also: Strictly VC2 — VC Deal Review14:52 - Story 1: Biopharma M&A Is Back: PwC Reports Strongest Deal Quarter Since 2020 [Fierce Biotech]PwC data shows life sciences deal values exceeded $65B in Q1 2026, the strongest quarter in six years — a macro signal that the biopharma financing cycle has turned.Tension / discussion: Is this a genuine ecosystem recovery or a buyer's market where big pharma is snapping up distressed assets at favorable prices while smaller biotechs remain starved for capital?17:58 - Story 2: Kardigan Prices $400M Upsized IPO to Fund Cardiovascular Drug Push [Endpoints]Cardiovascular biotech Kardigan prices above expectations in a upsized $400M IPO, the latest evidence that the biotech IPO window is open for the right therapeutic areas.Tension / discussion: Cardiovascular drugs have a historically brutal Phase 3 attrition rate — does the IPO enthusiasm reflect genuine science confidence or investor FOMO in a hot market?FYIInStride Raises $30M Series C for Pediatric Mental Health [MedCity News]Altaris Acquires AI Drug Dev Platform Simulations Plus for $375M [Fierce Biotech]Vedana Therapeutics Emerges With $46M for Next-Gen Migraine Prevention [Fierce Biotech]3 — Policy20:01 - Story 1: FDA Reverses Course on uniQure Huntington's Gene Therapy — A Signal of New Regulatory Flexibility [MedCity News]FDA greenlights uniQure's Huntington's gene therapy for accelerated approval filing after reversing a prior requirement for an additional trial — a bellwether for how the agency will treat the broader rare disease pipeline.Tension / discussion: Is this welcome regulatory modernization for patients with no other options, or does loosening approval standards for gene therapies create a safety accountability gap that will haunt the field?also: STAT Newsalso: Fierce Biotech23:35 - Story 2: Rural Hospitals Told to 'Hang On' as Medicare Opt-Outs Accelerate and Closure Funds Lag [Becker's]Rural hospital leaders are skeptical the $50B HR 1 transformation fund arrives before closures hit, while a parallel JAMA analysis shows rural physicians are opting out of Medicare faster than anyone is tracking.Tension / discussion: Is the Rural Health Transformation Program a genuine lifeline or a political promise that arrives too late for the hospitals and patients that need it most?also: Becker's31:28 - Story 3: Trump HHS Launches Active Information-Blocking Enforcement Under 21st Century Cures Act [Becker's Hospital Review]After years of soft implementation, HHS is now actively enforcing information-blocking rules — a compliance wake-up call for health systems, EHR vendors, and health IT companies.Tension / discussion: Will enforcement pressure actually unlock data interope...
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    1 hr and 21 mins
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