Vertex’s big deal, biotech’s red numbers, & an industry history lesson

How would you spend $13 billion in cash? Is biotech stale? And remember Dendreon?

We cover all that and more this week on “The Readout LOUD,” STAT’s biotech podcast. We discuss a multibillion-dollar deal from Vertex Pharmaceuticals with sweeping implications and a lengthy backstory. We also explain why gas prices are weighing on biotech, and make a surprise announcement.

For more on what we cover, here’s the Vertex news; here’s where you can find episodes of Color Code; here’s where you can subscribe to the First Opinion Podcast; and here’s where you can subscribe to our biotech newsletter, The Readout.

Be sure to sign up on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, or wherever you get your podcasts.

And if you have any feedback for us — topics to cover, guests to invite, vocal tics to cease — you can email [email protected].