Every Patient Is Different

It's called "the vomiting camel splat zone."

1. BioNTech’s founders Uğur Şahin and Özlem Türeci are using their newly minted fortune to fuel their ambitious — though still nascent — plans in oncology. They are doubling down on a hope that Şahin admits once sounded like science fiction: to be able to tailor drugs to each patient’s cancer. The company recently took steps in the right direction with two early stage trials showing promising data, one in pancreatic cancer and the other targeting solid tumors including ovarian and testicular cancer. Success would mean a new journey: reimagining the whole pharmaceutical industry. “We had this idea to develop technologies dedicated to really saving every single individual patient,” says Şahin. “Because every patient is different, and you can’t just take something off the shelf.” (Source: ft.com, Ed. Note: emphasis added)

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2. Beijing is facing a “ferocious” outbreak of Covid-19, officials warned, after they shuttered public venues and reintroduced mass testing mandates less than a week after the city eased restrictions. An outbreak at a popular 24-hour bar in the Chinese capital’s usually bustling Chaoyang district has infected more than 200 people and forced more than 6,000 people to isolate at home. The outbreak at Heaven Supermarket bar in the city’s most populous district was detected just days after venues, such as pubs and restaurants, were allowed to reopen following a month-long closure. Authorities have since re-closed all entertainment venues in Chaoyang. (Source: ft.com)4

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3. Even by the standards of this volatile year, Monday’s wild ride throughout financial markets stands out. Two-year US Treasury yields surged 29 basis points as bond prices tanked. The yield jumped 54 basis points since Thursday night, the biggest two-day increase since 2008, a sign of just how rapidly traders are adjusting where they think the Federal Reserve will take interest rates. All but five stocks in the S&P 500 tumbled, and the benchmark posted a more than 20% loss since its January peak, crossing into a bear market. On Tuesday morning in Asia, stocks extended the selloff as investors continued to process the possibility of more rapid Fed tightening, with MSCI’s Asia-Pacific share index falling more than 1.5%. Cryptocurrencies plummeted so violently that a popular lending platform froze withdrawals to prevent a very modern kind of bank run. Over in old-school currencies, the U.S. Dollar Index roared to the highest level in almost two decades as investors sought safety. It was enough, for some, to resurface scary memories of the global financial crisis more than a decade ago. Christian Hoffmann, a portfolio manager for Thornburg Investment Management, said market liquidity has deteriorated so much that he’s thinking about the dark days of 2008. (Source: bloomberg.com)