Keytruda: How Merck's Pembrolizumab Became the Best-Selling Cancer Drug of All Time

In episode 3 of Approved, Alex and Matt trace the full story of Keytruda - from its origins as a failed antibody campaign in the netherlands through FDA…

Published on Approved • May 15

2:07:35

Pharma Is Hollywood, Roughly

How two industries with nothing in common converged on the same business model

May 11 • Alex Kesin

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March 2026

They Put a TB Vaccine Where?!

BCG, bladder cancer, and drug repurposing from the weirdest of places

Mar 26 • Alex Kesin

24

7

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February 2026

Anti-Amyloids and Antichrist

Some thoughts on Peter Thiel's view of the beta-amyloid hypothesis as a lens for understanding the messy, slow cost of figuring out how to make drugs…

Feb 2 • Alex Kesin

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1

January 2026

Episode #1: Amylin Pharmaceuticals

Amylin pioneered the incretin class & staked their future on obesity 20+ yrs ago, yet sold for only $7B in 2012 - a pittance for the foundation of what…

Published on Approved • Jan 30

1:46:27

A Better Proxy Than the Rat and Dog

How Axiom Bio is trying to fix drug safety testing.

Jan 8 • Alex Kesin

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December 2025

Would Walter White Still Cook Meth in 2025?

Or: How Modern Oncology and Employer Insurance Would Have Ruined the Entire Premise

Dec 1, 2025 • Alex Kesin

159

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November 2025

The three-thousand-year journey of colchicine

For centuries it was a poison. Then colchicine rewrote treatment for gout, heart disease, and later, the debate over drug exclusivity.

Published on The Works in Progress Newsletter • Nov 20, 2025

October 2025

Fun with FGF21

...Did everyone just panic-buy an FGF21?

Oct 14, 2025

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September 2025

How Amgen Lost The PCSK9 Patent War

In 2014, Amgen sued Sanofi and Regeneron to claim ownership of an entire class of cholesterol drugs. Nine years later, the Supreme Court ruled against…

Sep 25, 2025 • Alex Kesin

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August 2025

The Cowboy Of Generic Drugs

A review of Yossi Goldstein's "Eli Hurvitz and the Creation of Teva Pharmaceuticals"

Aug 22, 2025 • Alex Kesin

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2

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The Day Novartis Chose Discovery

How a Swiss pharma giant built the last great corporate research skunkworks - and why that model may never work again.

Aug 5, 2025 • Alex Kesin

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