President-elect Donald Trump has named Elon Musk as the leader of a new “Department of Government Efficiency," that will “dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies.” The Tesla CEO and owner of X will spearhead the effort along with former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, Trump announced in a statement on Truth Social.

The scope of the role isn’t exactly clear. Trump’s press release said that “the Department of Government Efficiency will provide advice and guidance from outside of Government, and will partner with the White House and Office of Management & Budget to drive large scale structural reform, and create an entrepreneurial approach to Government never seen before.” It also stated that “their work will conclude no later than July 4, 2026.”

Musk shared the news on X, but didn’t indicate how the role might impact his obligations at his various other companies. Musk, who poured millions of dollars into Super Pac boosting Trump’s campaign, has previously talked about his desire to work with Trump to cut government spending. He did, however, joke about potential "merch" for the operation. "Republican politicians have dreamed about the objectives of 'DOGE' for a very long time," Trump's statement said. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/elon-musk-will-lead-a-new-department-of-government-efficiency-donald-trump-says-015521217.html?src=rss

La sélection d’enfants selon des critères ethniques ou religieux pour l’admission dans des CPE du grand Montréal n’est pas légale.

Ottawa aurait laissé trop de liberté aux syndicats, en leur donnant «carte blanche» pour déclencher des grèves dans les ports du pays.

À l’exception notable des électeurs conservateurs.

Le Bloc Québécois trône toujours en tête, à 35% des intentions de vote, selon un sondage Léger-Le Journal-TVA.

Donald Trump a indiqué mardi qu’il comptait nommer Elon Musk à la tête d’un ministère nouvellement créé de l’«efficacité gouvernementale»

Dr Euan McBrearty, head of commerical & innovation, Wideblue shares five steps to successful medical device development.

When chemist Dora Richardson’s employer decided to terminate the breast cancer research on the drug Tamoxifen in the early 1970s, she and her colleagues continued the work in secret.

<p> <b>Abstract</b><br />CinnaGen, the largest biopharmaceutical company in the MENA region, is a leader in developing follow-on biologicals/biosimilars. Dr&nbsp;Haleh Hamedifar, Chairperson of CinnaGen, spoke to GaBI<i>&nbsp;</i>(Generics and Biosimilars Initiative) about the company’s strategic focus, which includes expanding its product portfolio, entering highly regulated global markets, and advancing affordable treatments for conditions such as multiple sclerosis and&nbsp;immunological diseases—transforming healthcare in underserved regions.</p><p><b>Keywords</b>: Biosimilars, clinical development, commercialization, MENA</p>

This new 10-minute TEDMED talk is getting quite a bit of attention:


 (if embedded video does not work, try the TED site itself.)

In it, Roger Stein claims to have created an approach to advancing drugs through clinical trials that will "fundamentally change the way research for cancer and lots of other things gets done".

Because the costs of bringing a drug to market are so high, time from discovery to marketing is so long, and the chances of success of any individual drug are so grim, betting on any individual drug is foolish, according to Stein. Instead, risks for a large number of potential assets should be pooled, with the eventual winners paying for the losers.

To do this, Stein proposes what he calls a "megafund" - a large collection of assets (candidate therapies). Through some modeling and simulations, Stein suggests some of the qualities of an ideal megafund: it would need in the neighborhood of $3-15 billion to acquire and manage 80-150 drugs. A fund of this size and with these assets would be able to provide an equity yield of about 12%, which would be "right in the investment sweet spot of pension funds and 401(k) plans".

Here's what I find striking about those numbers: let's compare Stein's Megafund to everyone's favorite Megalosaurus, the old-fashioned Big Pharma dinosaur sometimes known as Pfizer:

	Megafund (Stein)	Megalosaurus (Pfizer)
Funding	$3-15 billion	$9 billion estimated 2013 R&D spend
Assets	80-150	81 (in pipeline, plus many more in preclinical)
Return on Equity	12% (estimated)	9.2% (last 10 years) to 13.2% (last 5)

Since Pfizer's a dinosaur, it can't possibly compete with the sleek, modern Megafund, right? Right?

These numbers look remarkably similar. Pfizer - and a number of its peers - are spending Megafund-sized budget each year to shepherd through a Megafund-sized number of compounds. (Note many of Pfizer's peers have substantially fewer drugs in their published pipelines, but they own many times more compounds - the pipeline is just the drugs what they've elected to file an IND on.)

What am I missing here? I understand that a fund is not a company, and there may be some benefits to decoupling asset management decisions from actual operations, but this won't be a tremendous gain, and would presumably be at least partially offset by increased transaction costs (Megafund has to source, contract, manage, and audit vendors to design and run all its trials, after all, and I don't know why I'd think it could do that any more cheaply than Big Pharma can). And having a giant drug pipeline's go/no go decisions made by "financial engineers" rather than pharma industry folks would seem like a scenario that's only really seen as an upgrade by the financial engineers themselves.
A tweet from V.S. Schulz pointed me to a post on Derek Lowe's In the Pipeline blog. which lead to a link to this paper by Stein and 2 others in Nature Biotechnology from a year and a half ago. The authors spend most of their time differentiating themselves from other structures in the technical, financial details rather than explaining why megafund would work better at finding new drugs. However, they definitely think this is qualitatively different from existing pharma companies, and offer a couple reasons. First,

[D]ebt financing can be structured to be more “patient” than private or public equity by specifying longer maturities; 10- to 20-year maturities are not atypical for corporate bonds. ... Such long horizons contrast sharply with the considerably shorter horizons of venture capitalists, and the even shorter quarterly earnings cycle and intra-daily price fluctuations faced by public companies.

I'm not sure where this line of though is coming from. Certainly all big pharma companies' plans extend decades into the future - there may be quarterly earnings reports to file, but that's a force exerted far more on sales and marketing teams than on drug development. The financing of pharmaceutical development is already extremely long term.

Even in the venture-backed world, Stein and team are wrong if they believe there is pervasive pressure to magically deliver drugs in record time. Investors and biotech management are both keenly aware of the tradeoffs between speed and regulatory success. Even this week's came-from-nowhere Cinderella story, Intercept Pharmaceuticals, was founded with venture money over a decade ago - these "longer maturities" are standard issue in biotech. We aren't making iPhone apps here, guys.

Second,

Although big pharma companies are central to the later stages of drug development and the marketing and distributing of approved drugs, they do not currently play as active a role at the riskier preclinical and early stages of development

Again, I'm unsure why this is supposed to be so. Of Pfizer's 81 pipeline compounds, 55 are in Phase 1 or 2 - a ratio that's pretty heavy on early, risky project, and that's not too different from industry as a whole. Pfizer does not publish data on the number of compounds it currently has undergoing preclinical testing, but there's no clear reason I can think of to assume it's a small number.

So, is Megafund truly a revolutionary idea, or is it basically a mathematical deck-chair-rearrangement for the "efficiencies of scale" behemoths we've already got?

[Image: the world's first known dino, Megalosaurus, via Wikipedia.]

• How to Catalyze a Clinical Trial - My inaugural post introducing the blog and its purpose
• Video: Predicting Referral Conversion in Clinical Trial Advertising - A somewhat technical but very important topic, how to visualize and model the “real time” results of recruitment advertising at the sites.
• The Crystal Ball is on the Fritz - What to do with a broken enrollment feasibility process, and how asking will never be as good as measuring

• The New Breed of Clinical Trial Matchmakers - A (hopefully pretty complete, thanks to knowledgeable commenters) listing of services looking to match interested patients to clinical trials
• Rethinking Patient Enrollment, in One Graphic - The perils of predictability in site-based enrollment
• Seize the Data! Will Big Data Save Us from Ourselves? - My take on what I consider to be the large and serious obstacles in the way of “Big Data” solutions for patient recruitment

Please take a look, and I will see you back here soon.

[Photo credit: detour sign via Flikr user crossley]

Aug 31, 2016

As the African Union develops its long-term agenda 2063 for the continent, science, technology and innovation will play a bigger part in development goal setting, especially in the context of social and economic growth.

Dec 13, 2016

"Unlike the digital revolution that relied on pre-existing technologies, the new bioeconomy will involve more local research, teaching and commercialization. This will require greater involvement of local universities, especially those with an entrepreneurial inclination."

Jul 8, 2024

The July 2024 update to our database on the U.S. government investments in energy research, development, demonstration, and deployment (ERD3) through the U.S. Department of Energy.

Apr 11, 2024

On April 9, the study group met for the third time to examine economic development in Africa. The group explored connections between politics and economic growth trajectories across the continent, and analyzed the role of political instability and policy decisions in fostering development. Discussions covered the impact of factors like commodity markets, foreign aid, trade deals, and regional integration initiatives on development indicators. The study group counted with the presence of external expert guest H.E. Patrick Achi, former Prime Minister of Côte d’Ivoire. Prime Minister Achi shared about his experience at the highest level of government and presented the story of Côte d’Ivoire’s post-independence development as a microcosm of the broader challenges and opportunities facing African nations.

Apr 17, 2024

Meghan O’Sullivan, Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs director and former Deputy National Security Advisor, joins 'Squawk Box' to discuss the latest developments in the Middle East conflict, the potential impact of new sanctions on Iran, what a possible retaliatory strikes from Israel could look like, and more.

Get mortgage help. This is why. MakingHomeAffordable.gov :60

Vanilla Reload Swipe Load is a quick, safe and easy way to load cash on to your prepaid card.

The Asbury Park Waterfront

Mitch Eitel discusses shareholder activism and post-financial crisis enforcement issues

Volvo HoloLens

Volvo Cars and Ericsson developing intelligent media streaming for self-driving cars

Autotrader just announced the list of 2016 Must Test Drive vehicles. NASCAR driver Brad Keselowski�s #2 racecar is not on the list�and he thinks it should be. Find out why.

Conoce a la familia Méndez, pionera en la transformación extrema de camiones. Texas Trocas, nueva serie de Discovery en Español. Estreno 15 de septiembre a las 10PM E/P.

EPK

Global - No child should die of diabetes

Artistry Men� New Products

A Technology Development Story: meet the SYNERGY� Stent System engineers

As Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump stirs up false claims of voter fraud ahead of Election Day, we look at the role of an increasingly “partisan” Federal Election Commission with former FEC general counsel Larry Noble, who explains why “voters of a lot of wealth have the ability to influence elections the way that the rest of us don’t.” As the influence of money in politics grows unchecked, he warns, it has the effect of “silencing the voter.” Noble also responds to multibillionaire Trump supporter Elon Musk’s $1 million giveaways to Pennsylvania voters and discusses the lasting impact of the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision on campaign finance law.

The AAR Maharashtra, in the case of M/s. The Nisarga Consultancy, In Re [Order No. GST-ARA-21 of 2023-24/2024-25/B-55 dated July 31, 2024] ruled that no tax will be leviable on work allotted by Maharashtra Jeevan Pradhikar ("MJP") as per of Jal Jeevan Mission ("JJM") which is a mission of Government

Efforts to shape the policies of President-elect Donald Trump through Elon Musk are already underway. On Friday, Americans for Responsible Innovation (ARI), a nonprofit AI advocacy group, initiated a public petition urging Trump to appoint Musk as his special adviser on

In a surprising twist, Elon Musk is joining the Trump administration: not to advise on artificial intelligence or space innovation, but to lead an ambitious new project focused on government efficiency. Alongside entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, Musk will head up the Department

The largest and most ambitious Martian drone yet could carry kilograms of scientific equipment over great distances and set itself down on the Red Planet unassisted

The Renaissance artist Michelangelo had carried out human dissections, which may have led him to include women with breast cancer in some of his pieces

Chain will still accept payments via JCB/American Express cards or other means

The satellite internet company is expanding across Africa, but not without some controversy.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's evaluation is the first step toward a potential recall of 2.4 million Tesla vehicles

One of the president-elect's most visible supporters, Musk could be given a role in Trump's White House.

Triple gold medallist Chris Hoy helps unveil designs for London's 2012 Olympic cycling facilities.

Shot from village Timila in Ranikhet Tehsil of Uttarakhand

Highlights: Advances in genetic engineering have paved way for the development of living cell diagnostics and the

Targets that promote efficient, nationally and locally appropriate water use will be key to achieving the SDGs.

The post Press Release: Sustainable Development Goals Offer Unique Opportunity to Transform Management of Critical Water Resources first appeared on International Water Management Institute (IWMI).

Experts meet in Patna to discuss new initiative that could “future‐proof” one million smallholders.

The post Press Release: Space technology to help develop flood insurance for India’s farmers first appeared on International Water Management Institute (IWMI).

A new project is being launched in Kathmandu that will help shape the future of water resources development in Nepal.

The post Press Release: Developing the water resources of Western Nepal first appeared on International Water Management Institute (IWMI).

Research conducted in Bangladesh could have dramatic implications both for poor households and the entire wastewater value chain.

The post Press Release: New “pay-monthly” poop removal system could revolutionize sanitation in developing world, says new study first appeared on International Water Management Institute (IWMI).

IWMI and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation have awarded five organisations with funds to develop innovations for solar irrigation.

The post Grantees from South Asia awarded funds to develop innovations enhancing solar irrigation first appeared on International Water Management Institute (IWMI).

A new grant from Google’s philanthropic arm will help researchers develop a tool to bolster water security and climate resilience in the Middle East and North Africa.

The post IWMI announces development of a new, Google-supported tool that will harness AI and satellite data for water reuse in the Middle East and North Africa first appeared on International Water Management Institute (IWMI).

bThe Human Contraception Antibody (HCA) is the new safe contraception method that stops sperm movement and also prevent from sexually transmitted infections/b.

As the oil and gas industry rapidly expands across North America, increasing research has linked fossil fuel development to various physical and mental

A new sensor system to determine cholesterol levels in the blood has been developed. h2 Cholesterol Testing System /h2 The system does not use protein compounds, namely enzymes.