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First came the new teaser for Nathan Fielder’s documentary on Elizabeth Holmes. Now come the memes. Bring it on.

FDA names permanent heads of drug and biologics centers

For the past few months, key centers at the FDA have been led by acting officials. The agency said yesterday it will now make them permanent. Michael Davis will be director of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, and Karim Mikhail will be director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research.

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Retro Biosciences, the longevity startup backed by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, has raised more money at a $1.8 billion valuation, it announced Friday. 

Retro has a big mission: Add 10 healthy years to the human lifespan. It is seeking to do that by using a variety of technologies, including in vivo gene therapies, cell replacement therapies, and other approaches to spur younger, healthier cells into aging tissues. 

The company is currently running its first clinical trial — testing a pill designed to enhance the body’s ability to better clear out protein aggregates in patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Retro CEO Joe Betts-LaCroix told the audience at STAT’s Breakthrough Summit West on Tuesday that the trial is going “super good” and that researchers haven’t seen any dose-limiting toxicities. He said he anticipates releasing some data from the trial around August. 

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Why is old exon science getting new traction? What’s unsettling biotech VCs? And who will be the next CEO of PhRMA?

We discuss all that and more on the latest episode of “The Readout LOUD,” STAT’s weekly biotech podcast.

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