On this week’s episode, Eric Schmidt, Matt Gline, Chris Garabedian, Sam Fazeli, and Graig Suvannavejh open with a discussion on biotech public‑market dynamics, noting solid year‑to‑date performance for the XBI. Next, the group highlights the reopening of the IPO window, with multiple upsized offerings and strong aftermarket performance, supported by renewed generalist investor interest. The conversation then turns to large‑cap pharma earnings, with focus on Lilly’s continued outperformance driven by its obesity franchise and evolving commercialization strategies. Next, the co-hosts discuss robust deal flow across the sector, led by Lilly’s aggressive M&amp;A activity. On the data front, the co-hosts cover Revolution Medicines’ practice‑changing Phase 3 pancreatic cancer data and the contrasting market reaction to competitor results, as well as key takeaways from Summit Therapeutics’ Harmony‑3 interim analysis in lung cancer. Also in data news, developments in Alzheimer’s disease, including recent trial setbacks, regulatory approvals, and encouraging early commercial traction for new therapies are also mentioned. The episode concludes with reflections on IPO cycles, valuation discipline, and cautious optimism for sustained momentum in biotech markets. *This episode aired on May 1, 2026.

Episode 181 - May 1, 2026

Biotech Hangout

# Full Transcript

**Podcast:** Biotech Hangout

## Transcript

[SPEAKER_A] You're listening to The Biotech Hangout, a live and unedited weekly discussion of all the latest news in our industry with a group of biotech leaders and experts. I am Eric Schmidt, and my co-hosts today are Sam Fazeli, Graig Suvannavejh, Matt Gline, and Chris Garabedian. For more information about our hosts and guest speakers or to listen to the most recent episode, please go to thebiotechhangout.com. We've got a ton of content this this afternoon, so thanks everyone for joining. We're going to cover sort of the broader market dynamics and IPO trends in the biotech industry. We'll talk a lot about some deal flow, both M&A and collaborative deal flow. We'll discuss much of the key datasets and conferences that are upcoming, and then hopefully we'll have time to end with some regulatory developments and maybe even a little bit more company news. We'll try and squeeze that all into the broader hour here. Before we kick off, yeah, let me just start with a quick shout-out to two scientific luminaries that unfortunately passed away in the last week. Biotech industry is for the worse off for sure. I'm specifically referencing Craig Venter, who was a key figure in the Human Genome Project, a former CEO at Celera Genomics, and the first person ever to not just invent shotgun sequencing, but to use it to analyze a whole genome, H. influenzae, back in the 1990s. And then also Eugene Braunwald. Dr. Braunwald was kind of recognized as the founder of modern-day cardiology. His textbook and his presence in the cardiology world were pretty much unmatched resources for many of us. I personally got to know Craig a little bit when his Solera days were front and center to many in the industry. He was certainly a force of nature, a true character. And Dr. Brownwald consulted with many Wall Street firms and was revered everywhere he went. So both will be missed, and just a quick shout-out to each of them. But let's get on to some of the more relevant news in our industry and the market dynamics that continue to be I don't know, hard to put a finger on them. Greg, I think you're going to help us out understanding what's going on in the markets these days.

[SPEAKER_B] Thanks, Eric. It's great to be back on the Biotech Hangout. Yeah, so I thought we'd start with a review of where things are in the biotech market, and I'll speak on sector performance and then provide some commentary on the capital markets and deals we're seeing. So at a high level, I think things overall are still very healthy in biotech. Year-to-date performance is still in a positive territory. The XBI is up about 8% year-to-date, and that's still about 300 basis points of outperformance versus the S&P 500 and about 100 basis points of outperformance versus the NASDAQ. Also within healthcare, more broadly speaking, when using the XLV as a proxy, with the XLV down 6% year-to-date, the XBI is outperforming by 1,400 basis points....

Episode 181 - May 1, 2026

Transcript

Built for investment professionals

Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
edge in conversations you're not hearing.

Episode 181 - May 1, 2026

Transcript

Built for investment professionals

Every day you wait, your competitors are findingedge in conversations you're not hearing.

Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
edge in conversations you're not hearing.