At RA Capital, we love our TechAtlas team and the super detailed Landscape Maps they create to help us understand what can otherwise be an overwhelming amount of information. These maps explain the comparative strengths and weaknesses of as many as hundreds of competitive and complementary technologies, drugs, devices, and diagnostics in various stages of development for a particular disease or condition. Think of them like medical treasure maps that lead to the most promising technologies and companies in any given disease area. You can probably understand why we can’t afford to do all that work and just publish the maps freely for the whole world to study.

Then COVID came along.

In this month’s episode, we discuss the latest COVID news. Then Peter Kolchinsky talks with our guest, Dr. Joshua Cohen of Tufts Medical Center, about how they estimate the value of a drug.

Covid has flooded a barren vaccine startup landscape with capital. And that has revealed some valuable lessons for investors, company builders, Congress, and the public.

Given the seemingly endless supply of COVID-19-related content, it has sometimes felt like I was passively binging on round-the-clock coverage that was more distracting than edifying. So what might I have missed while I was absorbed in COVID? As it turns out, quite a lot.

The U.S. biotechnology sector is an indispensable, strategic national asset. But what if we’re taking it for granted? Recent attempts to weaken IP protections for Covid-19 vaccines and to implement drug price controls threaten future U.S. leadership in biotechnology.

Whatever therapy or intervention solves a previously unmet need is inherently novel. So any treatments for COVID-19 that turn out to work will be "novel" in every way that matters.