Listen: Vas Narasimhan on the future of pharma, plus Moderna’s vaccine promise & a biotech presidential bid

Is the pharmaceutical lobby on the ropes? What does it mean when a vaccine is “free”? And does biotech prepare you for the presidency?

We cover all that and more this week on “The Readout LOUD,” STAT’s biotech podcast. Vas Narasimhan, CEO of Novartis and the new chairman of PhRMA, joins us to discuss the industry’s struggles in Washington and whether the deflated biotech sector is still overvalued. We also dive into the latest news in the life sciences, including Moderna’s promise of no-cost Covid-19 vaccines and biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy’s potential run for president.

For more on what we cover, here’s the news on Moderna; here’s the story on Biogen; here’s more on Sanofi and Johnson & Johnson; here’s the news on Ramaswamy; here’s where you can find episodes of Color Code; and here’s where you can subscribe to the First Opinion Podcast.

Be sure to sign up on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Play, 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].