Tal Zaks - Bridging Science, Medicine, and Returns - [Invest Like the Best, EP.406]

Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy

Colossus

Investing, Business, Technology

4.8 • 2.4K Ratings

🗓️ 14 January 2025

⏱️ 91 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

My guest today is Tal Zaks. Tal is a physician-scientist turned biotech executive and investor who served as Moderna's Chief Medical Officer during their COVID-19 vaccine development, giving him an extraordinary perspective on one of modern medicine's pivotal moments. His combination of medical expertise, platform innovation experience, and investing acumen allows us to explore the interconnected challenges of turning scientific breakthroughs into viable medicines while generating venture-scale returns. We dive deep into lessons from Moderna's mRNA platform, examine how emerging technologies might reshape drug development, and the fundamental question of what it means to make people healthier. For investors, entrepreneurs, and anyone interested in the future of medicine, this discussion provides a window into both the immense potential and profound challenges of advancing human health. Please enjoy my conversation with Tal Zaks. For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here. ----- This episode is brought to you by Ramp. Ramp’s mission is to help companies manage their spend in a way that reduces expenses and frees up time for teams to work on more valuable projects. Ramp is the fastest-growing FinTech company in history, and it’s backed by more of my favorite past guests (at least 16 of them!) than probably any other company I’m aware of. Go to Ramp.com/invest to sign up for free and get a $250 welcome bonus. – This episode is brought to you by AlphaSense. AlphaSense has completely transformed the research process with cutting-edge AI technology and a vast collection of top-tier, reliable business content. Imagine completing your research five to ten times faster with search that delivers the most relevant results, helping you make high-conviction decisions with confidence. Invest Like the Best listeners can get a free trial now at Alpha-Sense.com/Invest and experience firsthand how AlphaSense and Tegus help you make smarter decisions faster. – This episode is brought to you by Ridgeline. Ridgeline has built a complete, real-time, modern operating system for investment managers. It handles trading, portfolio management, compliance, customer reporting, and much more through an all-in-one real-time cloud platform. I think this platform will become the standard for investment managers, and if you run an investing firm, I highly recommend you find time to speak with them. Head to ridgelineapps.com to learn more about the platform. ----- Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes. Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (https://thepodcastconsultant.com). Show Notes: (00:00:00) Welcome to Invest Like the Best (00:08:37) State of Medicine Today (00:09:44) Investment and Innovation in Medicine (00:13:14) Challenges in Biotech Investment (00:17:18) Personalized Cancer Vaccines (00:22:58) Investing in Biotech: Process and Considerations (00:28:38) Multidisciplinary Approach in Pharma (00:41:35) COVID-19 Vaccine Development (00:46:27) Funding and Manufacturing Challenges (00:48:01) Unprecedented Vaccine Safety Measures (00:50:38) Public Perception and Trust Issues (00:53:54) Future of mRNA and Nucleic Acid Medicines (00:58:04) Personalized Medicine and Data Collection (01:04:48) AI's Role in Healthcare (01:08:34) Investment Strategies in Therapeutics (01:14:57) The Human Element in Medical Innovation (01:21:58) The Kindest Thing Anyone Has Ever Done for Tal

Transcript

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0:00.0	This year's presenting sponsor for Invest Like the Best is Ramp. Ramp has built a command and control system for
0:05.7	companies finances. You can issue cards, manage approvals, make vendor payments of all kinds, and even
0:11.3	automate closing your books all in one place. We did an incredibly deep dive on the company and its product
0:17.0	as part of this new partnership, and what we heard and saw in customer surveys over and over
0:21.3	again was that Ramp is the best product by far. We've been users ourselves since I started my
0:26.5	business since long before I was able to spend so much time with the founders of Ramp and their
0:30.7	team. Over the holiday, I was with Ramps founders. Those that listen know that I believe that the best
0:35.8	companies are reflections of the people that
0:37.9	started them and run them. I've always loved the idea that Apple was really just Steve Jobs with 10,000
0:43.6	lives. Having gotten to know Ramps founders well, I can tell you that they are absolutely
0:47.9	maniacal about their mission to save people time and money. As far as I can tell, they do not stop
0:53.1	working or thinking about the product
0:54.6	and how to make it better. I'm sure they're proud of what they've built, but all I ever hear
0:58.7	when I'm with them is them talk about what they can do to improve and expand what Ramp does
1:03.2	for its customers. I used to joke that this podcast should be called This Is Who You Are Up Against.
1:08.5	I often had that same thought when I'm with Ramps's founders
1:11.3	Kareem, Zach, and Eric. I would not want to compete with these guys. I wish all the products
1:16.6	I used had a team as hell-bent on making the product better in every conceivable way.
1:21.1	I could list everything Ramp does here, but the list would be stale in a week. I highly recommend
1:25.0	you just start using it to run your business's finances today.
1:28.4	This year, I'll share a bunch of things I'm learning from these founders and this company,
1:32.1	and I think it'll make you realize why we are so excited to have this partnership with them
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