Top investors predict what's ahead for healthcare and biotech in 2022

Hello,

Welcome to Insider Healthcare. I'm healthcare editor Leah Rosenbaum, and this week in healthcare news:

• Our team talked to 15 of the top VCs in healthcare to hear their predictions on what will be big in 2022;
• A finance whiz thinks he's found the "holy grail" for improving clinical trials;
• Omicron is home for the holidays — here's what you need to know.

If you're new to this newsletter, sign up here. Comments, tips? Email me at lrosenbaum@insider.com or tweet @leah_rosenbaum. Let's get to it...

Top healthcare investors share what's next for 2022

Our reporters spoke to 15 of the biggest investors in healthcare to see what will be big in 2022.

Their predictions range from a continued digital health boom, to more focus on M&A, to more focus on technology that will increase the speed of drug development.

Check out the reporting done by Megan Hernbroth, Blake Dodge, Mohana Ravindranath, Shelby Livingston, and Allison DeAngelis to see what you should be keeping an eye on in the New Year.

Read the full story>>

15 top investors share their best 2022 healthcare predictions, from speedier drug development to a digital-health M&A boom

He found a new way to predict which clinical trials will succeed, but not everyone is convinced

Andrew Lo is an MIT finance whiz who thinks that he's solved one of the biggest problems in biotech: how to predict which drugs will succeed in human clinical trials, without wasting tons of money on a medication that might fail.

Allison spoke with Lo about his new algorithm, which could save companies billions of dollars if it works.

Not everyone is convinced that it works however — or that it's ethical.

Check it out>>

An MIT professor thinks he's found biotech's holy grail. If he's right, it could save drug companies billions.

Omicron during the holiday season

'Tis the season — for a new COVID-19 variant. The world is still trying to learn as much as it can about the Omicron variant, and this week brought some new discoveries.

Science reporter Marianne Guenot wrote about one lab study that found that Omicron might be able to spread faster than Delta — but that doesn't mean it causes more severe illness. In fact, some experts predict that this winter will see fuller hospitals, but more mild cases according to senior science reporter Aria Bendix.

And there's been some more good news: Rebecca Cohen reports that Dr. Fauci says that we likely won't need Omicron-specific booster shots.

In fact in a real-world study, Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine still cut the risk of hospitalization from the Omicron variant by 70%, reports Dr. Catherine Schuster-Bruce.

Finally, Marianne answered some of your essential holiday questions — like whether or not you should still be traveling this month.

See more now>>

Full hospitals, mild cases: What an Omicron wave could look like in the US this winter

More stories that kept us busy this week:

• Megan wrote about Belong Health's Series A pitch deck to improve care for lower-income elderly Americans.
• Megan also wrote about another pitch deck — this one was from Akido Labs, a company that uses health data analysis to help at-risk populations.
• Mohana reported that hospital systems are struggling to use patient data due to privacy concerns.
• Jade Khatib found that the leading causes of death in the US aren't the diseases that get the most federal funding.
• We made a page where you can see all of our lists of the top healthcare power players, from bankers, to VCs, to Google's health leaders.

-Leah