“The ballad of TIGIT” by Abhishaike Mahajan

There exist drug classes that seem, in retrospect, cursed. As these chemicals worm their way through the clinical trial system, they consume billions of dollars along the way, and squelch through thousands of sick patients. When finally it dawns on everyone how useless the whole endeavour was, the drugs life is at last cut short, nothing useful left in its destructive wake. The prototype here are amyloid-beta drugs. These are Alzheimer's treatments that are widely perceived as immense disappointments, with the negative sentiment even leaking to the broader public. To be fair to these chemicals, the story here is a bit more complicated than the tabloids let on. Lots of amyloid research was not fake, and the drugs may genuinely be useful for early-stage Alzheimer's. But they remain, regardless, disappointments. Beyond amyloid-beta, which has been steadily disappointing for awhile now, there is one other such category of drug whose particular dance has just recently wrapped up. It may very well someday gets its chance in the spotlight, but it will take time. Because it—just like every other chemical in this class—shares a searing, burning radioactivity. You should not touch them. You should not suggest touching them. In fact, no [...] --- First published: May 27th, 2026 Source: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/iyatrrJaHysuhrqXe/the-ballad-of-tigit --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO. ---Images from the article:Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.