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The drug sold by Biogen is an antibody that attaches to brain plaques. Aduhelm failed in a large human trial that showed no specific benefits for patients with brain diseases. However, the company and the US Food and Drug Administration decided to move forward in June, ignoring the opposition of the agency’s expert advisers. Several people resigned. One of them, Aaron Kesselheim (Aaron Kesselheim), called the incident “probably the worst drug approval decision in the recent history of the United States.”
Yes, we need new treatments for Alzheimer’s disease. But this approval marks a worrying trend to use a weaker type of evidence (called “surrogate markers”) to approve drugs. Because Aduhelm significantly reduces brain plaque (a hallmark of dementia), the FDA concluded that it has a “reasonable possibility” to benefit patients. One problem with this speculation is that no one knows whether these plaques are causing the disease or just one of its symptoms.
Aduhelm is the first new Alzheimer’s drug in 20 years, and it has been a fiasco. Few patients get it, Biogen’s sales are minimal, and at least one person died of brain swelling. Since its approval, the company has cut the price of the drug by half, and its research director has suddenly resigned.
resistanceread more: “How unproven Alzheimer’s drugs are approved,” New York Times.
Zillow’s home buying algorithm
“Don’t rely too much on your own supply” is a familiar business motto. The real estate listed company Zillow did exactly this, and the result was disastrous.
The company’s real estate listing site is very popular, and its computer-generated home values (called “Zestimates”) are also very popular. The company’s mistake was to use its estimates to buy houses on their own, without seeing them, to flip them and charge transaction fees. Zillow quickly learned that its algorithm did not correctly predict changes in housing prices. This is not the only problem.
Zillow is competing with other digital bidders called “iBuyers.” So it did what any buyer who decides to make a deal would do: overpay. By this year, Zillow had listed hundreds of houses at prices below its purchase price. In November last year, the company closed its iBuying division Zillow Offers, laid off 2,000 employees, and wrote off $500 million in what the Wall Street Journal called “one of the most serious corporate retreats in the United States in recent times.”
Zillow will stick to its original business of selling advertisements to real estate agents. Its Zestimates still has a home on the site.
read more: “What’s wrong with Zillow? A real estate algorithm has disrupted its big bets,” Wall Street Journal
Ransomware
Ransomware is a type of malicious software that uses encryption to kidnap company computer files. The criminals then ask for money to restore access. This is a booming business. According to data from the network security company SonicWall, ransomware set a new record of more than 500 million attacks in 2021.
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