Neurochemistry of Happiness & Biopharma’s Pricing Quandary

Three Failed Attempts to Retire and Become a Full-Time Gardener

Neurochemistry of happiness and its stubborn detachment from the dreams we learn to dream - humbling realization of mankind's underwhelming progress in medical science. My long list of 'absolutely can do' options became very short very fast - Nationwide Dental Clinics (courtesy of my lovely wife, Judy), or a Biotech Startup. Judy understood dental surgery, I did not. Another experience of our flawed belief system.

Success can be an unattainable concept in absence of humility and true humility is to 'remain teachable’, regardless of what we already know. Decades of experience won't prepare one for the complex and demanding journey of a successful entrepreneur

My passionate ‘humility’, trying to understand why the most profitable industry cannot offer its products at affordable prices definitely made my expert friends from industry and financial sector 'a bit too exhausted'. A study found that 34 million Americans reported knowing at least one friend or family member who died after not receiving needed medical treatment because they were unable to afford for it. Another study reported 44% of Americans don't fill their prescription for cost. The pharmaceutical industry earns almost 50 percent of its worldwide revenue here and yet many patients in our country either cannot afford or go broke trying to pay for them.

Biopharma and its mischievous pricing practice. After 26 years in this sector, I find the criticism unfortunate and ill informed. Drug development is costly, risky and lengthy process. Average cost of developing a new drug is roughly US $2.6 billion and can take up to 15 years before return on investment can be realized. Remaining patent years, return on investment, small patient population, handful of markets with US being the key, high price in the USA is unavoidable. Recent 'market correction’ and industry's decisions to abandon R&D of promising therapies may highlight rarity of medical breakthroughs and unsustainable price-based business models in post Inflation Reduction Act era. 

Studying population health made the decision easy – the disappointed 'gardener' needed to develop solutions for millions, not hundreds; and Einstein offered the guidance once again, “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” 

Concept Tevogen was born to alleviate human suffering of health inequality which is rooted in business acumen and scientific brilliance of a group of industry leaders and scientists, who believed it was impossible to fail and deployed every ounce of passion, unconventionality, and scientific ingenuity at their disposal to understand biopharma business better than anyone else, to make lifesaving immunotherapies both affordable and profitable.

It is true that Tevogen Bio is a success story. The company has developed core organizational capabilities, successfully completed the proof-of-concept clinical trial of its lead product candidate, established a robust research pipeline, and earned considerable brand recognition for its patient centric, purpose driven business model, all in less than two years since its formation. Many perceive Concept Tevogen as promise of next era of medical innovation industry, a solution to biopharma's pricing quandary, perhaps it is - but the promise, the hope - will not become a reality unless we embrace the concept of equality, embrace the concept of 'change' and the concept of ‘adapt and thrive’.

The prolonged Pandemic is testing the limits of our tolerance for grief. It is also testing the limits of human ingenuity, limits of medical science. Our scientific progress is struggling to keep up with never ending variants.

Innovation is incremental by nature AND - 'science will prevail' - it always does - and no one knows that better than us, the biopharma industry.

No Sector of The Economy can thrive in absence of an efficient Medical Innovation Industry. Our work saves lives and prosper societies, globally, every single day. Being part of this industry is a privilege, it is a calling. We must adapt, we must invent a sustainable drug development model, we must THINK DIFFERENTLY.

Warren, New Jersey, TEVOGEN BIO

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