Episode 167 - December 19, 2025

On the final episode of 2025, Daphne Zohar, Bruce Booth, and Eric Schmidt kick off with a general market overview, including a look back at 2025 and some predictions for 2026. The co-hosts discuss biotech rebounding in the last few months of 2025 after years of underperformance, driven by macro rotations and biopharma as an AI-trade hedge. They also discuss some recent follow-on activity from Immunome and Kyverna coming off positive data, before transitioning the conversation to the pros and cons of staying private versus going public. The recent FDA turmoil is also discussed, including reaction to the New York Times article on a potential coup attempt against Dr. Marty Makary led by RFK Jr., as well as an increase in seemingly random CNPV decisions, including J&J’s Tecvayli. The co-hosts then dive into STAT’s best and worst CEOs of 2025, suggesting leadership success can sometimes come down to luck. In data news, Kyverna reported positive results for its CAR‑T miv‑cel in stiff person syndrome, which — if approved — could represent one of the smallest datasets for a cell therapy approval and the first cell therapy for an autoimmune disease. The episode concludes with the breaking news of BioMarin’s $4.8B acquisition of Amicus Therapeutics. *This episode aired December 19, 2025.