196 - PCE at 4.1%, GLP-1s for Kids, and OpenAI's Custom Chip — Health:Further Weekly

Vic and Marcus discuss rising inflation, the AI-driven data center boom, and growing concerns about the long-term economic impact of artificial intelligence. They examine major healthcare venture funding rounds, the resurgence of biotech investment, Medicare policy changes, PBM scrutiny, rising healthcare spending driven by GLP-1 drugs, rural hospital transformation, chemotherapy drug shortages, new cancer treatments, and the growing use of Wegovy in children. The episode also covers Bitcoin's sharp decline, venture capital consolidation, and the future of healthcare innovation.Story Lineup1 — In This Economy1:59 - Story 1: PCE Hits 4.1% — The Iran War, the AI Build-Out, and a Fed Caught in the Middle  [WSJ]7:13 - Story 2: AI Infrastructure Is Inflation's New Structural Driver  [WSJ]16:17 - Story 3: AI Bubble Fears Trigger Nasdaq Rout; KOSPI Crashes 10% Overnight  [Axios]18:02 - Story 4: Scott Bessent: Hamilton Inspires Trump Economic Statecraft  [WSJ]2 — VC Deal Review20:33 - Story 1: Menlo Ventures Closes $3B Fund — Biggest Ever — on the Back of Its Anthropic Bet  [TechCrunch]28:49 - https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/ai-and-machine-learning/assort-health-scores-120m-series-c-scale-voice-ai-agent-platform-healthcare 30:21 - Story 2: Cadence Closes $100M Series C at $1.23B Valuation for AI-Powered Chronic Care  [MedCity News]31:33 - Story 3: Ollin Biosciences Hauls In $330M Series B to Challenge Roche's Vabysmo in Wet AMD  [Fierce Biotech]3 — Policy32:34 - Story 1: U.S. Health Spending Hits $5.7 Trillion in 2025 — GLP-1 Costs Are a Primary Culprit  [Healthcare Dive]34:43 - Story 2: 31 House Democrats Demand Transparency on CMS's AI Prior-Auth Pilot in Medicare  [Healthcare Dive]4 — Health Payors38:35 - Story 1: Florida Opens Antitrust Probe Into CVS/Caremark as State-Level PBM Crackdown Accelerates  [Healthcare Dive]43:07 - Story 2: Abarca Health and LucyRx Merge to Build a Scaled Independent PBM Alternative  [MedCity News]44:33 - Story 3: Medicare Advantage at an Inflection: Reset or Retreat?  [MedCity News]5 — Health Systems50:11 - Story 1: Cancer Chemo Shortages Force Hospitals to Consider Rationing  [Becker's]52:33 - Story 2: Eli Lilly Halts 340B Discounts for Non-Compliant Hospitals, Triggering Legal Battle  [MedCity News]55:39 - Story 3: States Are Using the $50B Rural Health Fund to Shrink Hospitals, Not Transform Care  [Healthcare Dive]6 — Pharma & Novel Therapies57:38 - Story 1: FDA Approves Two New Drugs to Replace Chemo as First-Line Treatment for Triple-Negative Breast Cancer  [WSJ]59:23 - Story 2: Pfizer's First Major ADC From the $43B Seagen Acquisition Fails Phase 3  [Fierce Biotech]59:47 - Story 3: AbbVie Pays $10.9B for Apogee to Challenge Dupixent in Eczema  [Fierce Biotech]7 — About Health & Us / The Clinician's Voice1:00:39 - Story 1: Wegovy for Elementary Schoolers: Pediatricians Turn to GLP-1s as Childhood Obesity Rates Climb  [WSJ]8 — Web31:03:47 - Story 1: Bitcoin Hits Multi-Year Low of $58K as BTC and ETH Each Post 20%+ Monthly Losses  [CoinDesk]9 — The AI Tracker1:06:18 - Story 1: Anthropic Accuses Alibaba of Running a 'Brazen' Campaign to Illicitly Access Claude  [WSJ]1:10:30 - Story 2 : https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/glm-52-why-im-replacing-opus-in-claude1:12:32 - Story 3: OpenAI Unveils 'Jalapeño' — Its First Custom AI Inference Chip Built With Broadcom  [WSJ]1:13:05 - Story 4: X - Satya Nadella - "Frontier without an ecosystem is not stable."  [X]