In this week’s edition of InnovationRx, we look at the health risks of winter storms, a new Korean weight loss drug billionaire, a biotech using AI for rare diseases, and more. To get it in your inbox, subscribe here.
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Extreme weather can be deadly. At least 30 deaths were attributed to the weekend’s snowstorm as forecasters warned that the frigid temperatures could last for weeks in many locations.
That included a number of deaths from hypothermia and medical emergencies while clearing snow, as well as a few fatal sledding accidents. This week’s massive winter storm dumped more than a foot of snow on at least 19 states, including those like Texas and Tennessee that are less prepared to deal with the miseries of winter weather. As of Wednesday morning, nearly 400,000 people remained without power, according to online tracker PowerOutage.com.
While people generally know to be careful of freezing when the heat goes out (though cold injuries can sneak up on you), shoveling snow is an unsung risk. Yet a 2020 report by the American Heart Association listed it as one of the physical activities that can place the most stress on a person’s heart. That’s because the physical exertion of shoveling increases heart rate and blood pressure, while at the same time the cold constricts blood vessels–a double whammy of stressors. As Kate Elfey, a Baltimore cardiologist, told Prevention: “I don’t think people realize how taxing or high-intensity shoveling snow can be.”
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A New Weight-Loss Drug Billionaire In Korea
Investor optimism about a weight-loss pill being developed by Korean pharmaceutical company Sam Chun Dang Pharm has made its chairman Yoon Dae-in a new billionaire. Yoon, 75, owns 34% of the company’s shares (directly and indirectly) and also has a small stake in its eye-drop manufacturing arm called Optus Pharmaceutical. Forbes estimates Yoon’s net worth at $2.1 billion.
Shares of Sam Chun Dang rose more than 75% in January. On Thursday, the company announced that it had signed an agreement with Japanese drug maker Daiichi Sankyo to jointly develop and commercialize its weight-loss pill.
The Korean firm will be entering an enormous, but increasingly competitive market for next-generation weight-loss drugs. In addition to incumbent players Lilly and Novo Nordisk, both of which have GLP-1 pills, other challengers include publicly-traded Viking Therapeutics, VC-backed startup Kaliera Therapeutics and pharma giant Roche.
OpenEvidence Founder Daniel Nadler’s Wealth Soars To $7.6 Billion
Three years ago, Daniel Nadler launched OpenEvidence, an AI-based search tool that helps doctors get answers to complicated clinical questions quickly and easily. Now, the startup’s latest $250 million fundraise, which doubled its valuation to $12 billion, has made Nadler twice as rich. Forbes estimates that the Miami-based AI founder is now worth $7.6 billion, up more than 100% from his $3.6 billion net worth in late October.
OpenEvidence has quickly become one of the hottest AI startups in the healthcare sector. Today some 740,000 physicians — about 45% of doctors in the United States — use the search engine to scan through millions of peer-reviewed research publications across top medical journals and find useful (sometimes lifesaving) information in seconds instead of hours or days. Last month, physicians turned to the software in some 18 million clinical consultations, Nadler said. “We’ve become the default operating system for doctors,” he told Forbes.
Deal of the Week
Veterans of BioMarin Pharmaceuticals raised $82 million to launch a new biotech, Mendra, to use artificial intelligence to develop therapies for rare diseases faster and more efficiently. The financing was led by OrbiMed, 8VC and 5AM Ventures at an undisclosed valuation. Mendra cofounder and CEO Joshua Grass worked at BioMarin for 15 years. After he left in 2017, he was CEO of biotechs Modis Therapeutics and Escia.
WHAT WE’RE READING
This year’s Forbes 50 Over 50 Global list highlights a number of women making their mark in healthcare, including Elaine Warburton, cofounder of ReadyGo Diagnostics in the U.K., and Sirpa Jalkanen, an immunology professor at the University of Turku in Finland.
Nearly 800 people have been infected in South Carolina’s ongoing measles outbreak–more than 600 in 2026 alone.
Merck is no longer in talks to buy Revolution Medicines, which is working on therapies for pancreatic and other hard-to-treat cancers, for $30 billion.
RFK Jr.’s plan to test a hepatitis B vaccine in West African babies is blocked after widespread condemnation from public health researchers.
Did a celebrated researcher obscure a baby’s poisoning? The New Yorker investigates a 2005 case that ushered in a new branch of pediatrics and finds the evidence doesn’t add up.
Crucial NIH grant-review panels are on track to lose all their voting members this year, which could freeze billions of dollars of health research funding.
Moderna is scaling back its investments in late-stage vaccine trials because of opposition from U.S. regulators.