Who got exclusive access to Eli Lilly&#x27;s highly anticipated obesity candidate? Why are drugmakers spending so much money on acquisitions? And are hair loss drugs a good investment?<br><br>We discuss all that and more on this week&#x27;s episode of “The Readout LOUD,” STAT&#x27;s biotech podcast. We bring on our colleague Lizzy Lawrence to discuss her scoop that Lilly and the Food and Drug Administration have allowed one person to receive the pharma company&#x27;s obesity candidate, retatrutide, through the FDA’s “compassionate use” program.<br><br>We also discuss the resurgence of M&amp;A, Lilly&#x27;s interest in a hair loss drug, and then the FDA&#x27;s reversal on rare disease drugs.

407: The mysterious case of Eli Lilly's obesity drug

The Readout Loud

# Full Transcript

**Podcast:** The Readout Loud

## Participants

- **Allison DeAngelis** (STAT)
- **Elaine Chen** (STAT)
- **Lizzie Lawrence** (STAT)
- **Mika Kakafuta-Durink** (Gilead Sciences)
- **Galia Levy** (Kite, a Gilead company)

## Transcript

Welcome to this week's episode of The Readout Loud, a weekly biotech podcast from STAT. I'm Allison DeAngelis. And I'm Elaine Chen. Adam Forrestine is out this week. It's Thursday, June 25th, and on this week's episode, we're going to discuss regulatory changes in the clinical trial process, and the mysterious case of who has gotten early access to Eli Lilly's new obesity drug. Our DC colleague Lizzie Lawrence joins us for a wide ranging chat.

But first, a recap of this week's news and a word from our sponsor.

I'm Triselle Vasquez, STAT Brand Studio Producer, and I hope you can stick around later in this episode for a sponsored conversation with two senior leaders from Gilead Sciences and Kite, a Gilead company. What sets us apart is our unique and complementary strength across two transformative platforms. Gilead's leadership in antibody drug conjugates, or ADCs, and Kite's pioneering work in CAR T cell therapies.

We've now treated over 34,500 patients worldwide with our cell therapies. That's the most patients treated out of any CAR T company. Dr. Mika Kakafuta-Durink and Dr. Galia Levy coming up at the end of this Readout Loud episode. Elaine, how is your summer going so far?

Um, it's good. It almost, it kind of doesn't feel like it's summer yet. I don't know. The weather has been kind of all over the place. And I feel like at least at STAT, the news hasn't really slowed down. So it doesn't really feel like summer yet. No, I have been so busy this week. And I have completely missed basically every World Cup game that has played this week, though it's been, there's been quite a lot of action. Are you rooting for anyone in particular?

I haven't really been following soccer. I was invested in the NBA finals. And then since then, I've kind of been sports out. So I'm invested in Scotland. I want Scotland to come back to Boston. Whatever circumstances lead to that, whoever has to lose, whoever has to win, that's what I want. I want Scotland to come back and play in Boston, which I've heard is a potential, that is a theoretical situation. If they win some certain games, they could come back and play, I think, Germany in Boston.

Okay. Yeah. I hope that the bars in Boston are prepared for that, though, because I'm, that those, that would be quite a matchup. I heard that they ran out of beer. Yes. Was that true? I went to a bar with some folks last week and the bartenders were like, just so you know, like we're out of all of these beers. We have that beer just because we like, we're able to buy some 40s and we're pouring it out of 40s.

So we can't give you a can, but we do have 40s of that beer. Yeah. Bars actually ran out of beer. Okay. Well, Alison, I do hope for your sake that Scotland goes ba...

407: The mysterious case of Eli Lilly's obesity drug

Transcript

Built for investment professionals

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

407: The mysterious case of Eli Lilly's obesity drug

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.