Dispensed: A secret patch, a $31 million pay package, and Amazon's ambitions in a $300 billion healthcare-technology market

Welcome to Dispensed, your weekly dose of

While I was out on the road, the healthcare team in New York and San Francisco kept busy, documenting the changes coming to biotech leadership and interesting venture funding.

For starters, on Monday Gilead confirmed it had picked Roche Pharmaceuticals CEO Daniel O'Day as its next CEO. Emma Court has the scoop on what direction he might take the company.

Gilead's new CEO has a pay package of about $31 million — here's what he might do, and why Wall Street is cautiously optimistic

I chatted with O'Day back in August and got his perspective on Roche's decision to acquire Foundation Medicine and Flatiron Health. It might be too much reading of the tea leaves, but I'm curious if O'Day will make some interesting bets/take some new strategies over

Emma also took a deep-dive into the state of peanut allergy treatments. There have been a lot of developments in the past year, and 2019 is shaping up to be the year of the peanut-allergy patch.

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A 'secret' patch shows the future of treating the most common food allergy, and two biotechs are competing to own the $3 billion market

Emma also took a look at Biogen's advances back into ALS drug development, even though it's the area where it experienced the biggest failure in the past.

On the West Coast, Erin Brodwin took a look at a Silicon Valley startup that got a boost in funding for its approach to anti-aging treatments.

The man who helped build Silicon Valley's premier education startup is diving into the antiaging fight with a fresh $18 million

Khan Academy
Flatiron Health
e-commerce site Jet
$850 million antiaging field

It's been a crazy year for private biotech funding, and this week was no exception. Erin reports that Zymergen — a company using organisms to make new products — raised $400 million from SoftBank's Vision Fund and Goldman Sachs.

Get this — that only makes it the third largest deal of 2018. Pitchbook tells us Vir Biotechnology and Allogene Therapeutics both managed to raise more in deals this year. What a year.

In the spirit of my Seattle trip, I took some time Monday to analyze Amazon's health IT approach and what we know of it. Analysts are mixed on the impact the retail giant will have.

Amazon is dipping its toes into a $300 billion healthcare-technology market, and it has analysts wondering if the retail giant has a shot at disrupting it

And a quick Friday update on the urgent care front: Last week, I took a look at the industry overall and the dynamics shaping it as we get into 2019, and then on Thursday, two large urgent care chains merged, effectively creating one of the largest urgent care chains in the country rivaling MedExpress, a chain owned by Optum.

That's all for now! Stay tuned for many Seattle dispatches and some end-of-year coverage next week as we head into the holidays.

As always t

- Lydia

Dispensed: A secret patch, a $31 million pay package, and Amazon's ambitions in a $300 billion healthcare-technology market

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