SAN FRANCISCO — Noubar Afeyan, one of biotech’s top investors, warned in an annual letter that a backlash against science in the U.S. could endanger U.S. life expectancy, take “a sledgehammer” to biotech innovation, and give China a scientific and economic edge.
Afeyan’s letter, sent through his company-building group Flagship Pioneering, was issued on the first day of the annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference. His writing builds on remarks he made last year at the annual STAT Summit.
He recalled being at a meeting of CEOs and government officials and being told by a former world leader that lenacapavir, a medicine made by Gilead Sciences that can prevent HIV with just a twice-yearly injection, was “a man-made miracle.” Then, Afeyan, who has founded hundreds of biotechnology companies, most famously Moderna, wrote that research cuts and political decisions endanger future medical advances.
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