Katie Drummond: RIGHT. Move quickly and break things because we say a lot about Wired in recent months. We are going to take a short break, on our return, which you should read on Wired today.
Welcome back to Strange valley. I am Katie Drummond, world editorial director of Wired. I am joined by the director of business and industry of Wired, Zoë Schiffer. Now, Zoë, before letting you go, tell our listeners what they absolutely read, I have to read on Wired.com today, apart from the stories we talked about in this episode.
Zoë Schiffer: ALL RIGHT. I would like to have a pleasant, joyful and edifying story to talk to you, but I have another story of misfortune and sadness, and it's by …
Katie Drummond: Aw-Shucks.
Zoë Schiffer: I know. It is by Caroline Haskins, who is a freelancer for us, and in fact, we have just announced that she was joining the business desk. So exciting. She is incredible. She's so good. I'm so excited. And she wrote an article that we published yesterday on how Trump and Elon Musk's cuts at the FDA, so another administration that has experienced a serious budget and endowment cuts already endangers the development of drugs. And she obtained this from dozens of DRI documents from pharmaceutical companies.
Katie Drummond: Thus, between these deposits of the dry and what you and Emily pointed out to you yesterday about these credit card gels, it certainly seems that we see federal agencies ending here in a really consecutive way.
Zoë Schiffer: Yeah. I mean, it is interesting because pharmaceutical companies, pharmaceutical companies do not even say: “The FDA does not approve of our drugs, and therefore these drugs cannot come on the market.” They say that this agency was already so slow by design because the issues are very, very high when you talk about medicines and medicines. And therefore the endowment cuts, the budget cuts. The concern is that it stops. And if you are a pharmaceutical company that decides between continuing to produce a medication that has already been approved or by putting a lot of time, energy and resources, money behind the development of a new drug which, you are not sure, will obtain the approval of the FDA, you suddenly go less and more of the type of, OK, we will simply pay money into the pipeline of existing products. And that has really serious implications for people who may need these new therapies.
Katie Drummond: Zoë, thank you for all the joy you have brought to our show today. Thank you for joining me. Really, however, fascinating and so grateful things for your reports and team reports.
Zoë Schiffer: Thank you very much for doing me.
Katie Drummond: This is our program for today. We are going to create a link to all the stories that we have talked about today in the notes of the show. Make sure to consult the Thursday episode Strange valleywhich is all about the pro-natalist movement of Silicon Valley. If you like what you heard today, make sure you follow our show and note it on your choice of choice podcast. If you wish to contact one of us for questions, comments or suggestions, write us to Uncannyvalley@wired.com.
Amar LAL at Macro Sound mixed this episode. Jake Lummus is our studio engineer. Jordan Bell is our executive producer, the world audio chief of Condé Nast is Chris Bannon. And I am Katie Drummond, World Editorial Director of Wired.
Bye.
