Alex Denner: Biotech Billionaire | SALT Talks #9 | Summary and Q&A

TL;DR

Alex Dinner, CEO of Sarissa Capital Management, discusses the prospects of a COVID-19 vaccine, the role of telehealth in healthcare, and the opportunities for activism in the healthcare industry.

Key Insights

• ❓ Developing vaccines is a challenging process, and not all viruses have successful vaccines.
• 🛀 Multiple technologies are being pursued for COVID-19 vaccines, with mRNA vaccines showing promising results.
• 🆘 Steroids like dexamethasone can help manage the immune overreaction caused by COVID-19.
• 🍉 The healthcare industry may see long-term improvements in drug development and healthcare delivery as a result of regulatory changes during the pandemic.
• ❓ Alex Dinner is cautiously optimistic about therapies and vaccines for COVID-19.
• 🚚 Telehealth is becoming increasingly important and will likely improve healthcare delivery.
• ❓ Activism in healthcare can focus on improving both mature companies and early-stage companies with overspending issues.
• ❤️‍🩹 The availability of a COVID-19 vaccine before the end of 2020 is more than 50% likely, but broad availability may not be possible until the first quarter of 2021.

Transcript

hello everyone and welcome back to salt talks my name is John Darcy I'm the managing director of salt which is a global thought leadership forum at the intersection of Finance technology and geopolitics a salt talks are a series of digital interviews we've been doing in the lulav our in-person conference that do deep dives and the topics that we th... Read More

Questions & Answers

Q: How does Alex Dinner differentiate between mismanagement and flawed drugs when identifying potential targets for healthcare activism?

Dinner's team conducts thorough research on each company's pipeline and currently marketed products. They assess the cost structure and potential value of these products, comparing it to the market price. They look for companies with innovative and impactful therapies to invest in.

Q: What is Alex Dinner's opinion on telehealth, and does he have any favorite companies in the space?

Dinner views telehealth as an important and growing part of healthcare. However, he does not mention specific companies in the telehealth space during the interview.

Q: What is the likelihood of a COVID-19 vaccine being available before the end of 2020?

Dinner believes that there is a more than 50% chance of data showing the efficacy of one or more vaccines being available by the end of 2020. However, broad availability of vaccines is unlikely before the first quarter of 2021.

Q: How does Dinner approach activism in the early-stage therapeutic space?

While Sarissa Capital Management primarily focuses on later stage companies, Dinner notes that there is potential for activism in early-stage companies that may be overspending due to perceived low cost of capital.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• Alex Dinner discusses his background in biomedical engineering and his experience as an activist investor in the healthcare sector.

• He provides insights on the current efforts to develop a COVID-19 vaccine and the potential timeline for its availability.

• Dinner also highlights the growing importance of telehealth in the healthcare industry and the opportunities for activism in both mature and early-stage healthcare companies.