EQRx plots radical disruption on pricing

For years, commentators have observed that drug prices in the USA are significantly higher than elsewhere in the world. Pointing to the high levels of innovation in the USA, a country where new drugs and biologics tend to get launched first, argue that market-based pricing funds essential research and development.As the US Congress debates more government intervention to improve access, including the potential for the federal insurance fund Medicare to actively negotiate drug prices, one company is looking to work with the system to achieve the same result.Launched in 2019, EQRx (Nasdaq: EQRX) aims to create patent-protected medicines at drastically lower prices by leveraging new technologies and reforming the drug discovery and patient delivery process.While it may sound radical, the company is by no means on the fringes of industry, with biotech heavyweights behind it, including founder Alexis Borisy, a co-founder at Foundation Medicine and Blueprint Medicines.In this week’s episode of The Pharma Letter Podcast, I’m joined by the company’s chief executive, Melanie Nallicheri.We’ll discuss EQRx’ extraordinary success in fundraising, its work with Chinese biotech firm CStone Pharmaceuticals on a novel checkpoint blocker, and more.