YouSaid · the spoken record

Dave Ricks

lines on the record: 33
first: 2025-01-09
most recent: 2025-01-09
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“So next year you'll see Lily start large studies in alcohol abuse and nicotine use, even in drug abuse. And then beyond that, David, we need to make important medicines for the long haul or old company. We plan to be here another 150 years plus. And I mentioned my excitement about brain health. I think that's really the next frontier.”
2025-01-09 · The David Rubenstein Show · Dave Ricks · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“First of all, within the obesity metabolic health space, I think there's two things I'm very excited about. One is we have Tercipitide Majaro Zephound on the market. We have 11 other pipeline projects aimed at the same problem. But in different ways. So we have a triple acting medicine that's in phase three for those that have even higher body weight or more severe health problems. We have the oral project. nine others beyond that. We think this is going to be a very large segment with many different types of medicines for different conditions and different situations people might find themselves in. We're going to exploit that fully. The second thing is we've talked a lot about like cardiovascular health, diabetes, these conditions that one's think about with being overweight, but these medicines we think, and we aim to prove, can be useful for other things we don't think about connected to weight. These are often called anti-hedonics, so they are reducing that desire cycle.”
2025-01-09 · The David Rubenstein Show · Dave Ricks · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Of course, as a CO, you have a role in all this, but it would be way overstating the role if I took credit. So the credit goes to the scientists to begin with. We have a lot of incumbent capabilities like how do you take a protein like GLP1, which in the natural body lasts only a few seconds and make it into a week-long injection. So that's a pharmacology exercise that's difficult. And we have people who can do that. And we have people who can do the clinical trials and everything else to see the opportunity and go for it. We have people who make it every day 24-7. We run our factories. So it's a giant team sport.”
2025-01-09 · The David Rubenstein Show · Dave Ricks · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Hall of Science, and I got a phone call, and the team just got off the plane, got the results, and showed that people were losing over 20% body weight in a longer study. That was in April of 18. We disclosed those results later that year. And you could probably argue a lot of the run-up in Lilly was just execution from that moment forward.”
2025-01-09 · The David Rubenstein Show · Dave Ricks · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's hard to know exactly what the scale of something is. But the story of Terzepidite or Zephound for me is this. In 2016, I was named as the incoming CEO, and that fall, one of our scientists in the diabetes group called me about some early results they were receiving from Singaporean site we had that was doing a phase one study with Terzepitide, the ingredient and zepound. And we had to stop the study because people were losing too much weight to stay in it. And at first this was seen as like an alarming thing, but of course we began to process that as wait a minute. This could be something very special. So we sped to the next stage of development, phase two, where you try to show safety and efficacy in a bigger study. And I remember in a kind of a moment I was showing my daughter around to college as we were at Cal Berkeley standing outside the Lawrence.”
2025-01-09 · The David Rubenstein Show · Dave Ricks · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Mostly in the US, a large majority in Europe as well. So those are our two big bases for production. And in the U.S., we're building lots of plants right now, mostly the support of Majoro.”
2025-01-09 · The David Rubenstein Show · Dave Ricks · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Which is about $100 a week, and I know that's a sacrifice for many, but that's without insurance. With insurance, most people pay $25 a month. So that's the importance of insurance. That's why we buy insurance to shield us from our health costs. The online ones are as cheap as $100, but these are companies that want all the benefits of being a drug company but bear none of the responsibilities.”
2025-01-09 · The David Rubenstein Show · Dave Ricks · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You can buy Zephound direct from Lilly for $3.99 for the starter dose. This is a valuable innovation, David. $399 a month.”
2025-01-09 · The David Rubenstein Show · Dave Ricks · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's a terrible problem right now, actually, because I think consumers don't really know the dangers or the difference. Today, the FDA and the government is allowed this to sort of grow. And of course, a weight loss medication that's effective would be a popular thing for people to go around the healthcare system and seek treatment on their own. But the data we have is that 80% of these medicines are coming out of China from unapproved and unregulated sources. We recently, with borders and customs seized a big batch that was shipped in dog food, people then reformulate them and sell them locally in med spas and other outfits. But you really don't know what's in that vial. We buy them and test them. We find bacteria, plant material, viruses, fungus. You do not want to be using it.”
2025-01-09 · The David Rubenstein Show · Dave Ricks · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The company, as you pointed out graciously, is really doing well, but we really have a strong desire to do even more, and we're just at the beginning of this weight loss story. Right now there's six or seven million Americans who are taking these medicines. There are 110 million with obesity. We need to build more plants and develop more data, get better insurance coverage. Then there's the whole world to cover. It's projected in five years there'll be a billion people on the planet who have obesity. And it's going to become a much bigger problem in the developing world than it ever has been in America”
2025-01-09 · The David Rubenstein Show · Dave Ricks · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I'm not, but I would never hesitate to be on one if I needed it. But the best medicine is prevention, and so paying attention to exercise is something I've always cared about. It's a way I reduce stress, too. So I loved running, now I don't run anymore, but I do other things. I like hiking. I love backcountry skiing in the outdoors, play golf, being outside is where I find both fitness and peace.”
2025-01-09 · The David Rubenstein Show · Dave Ricks · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, so my son, he's an AI consultant, so not so much. My daughter is actually getting master's in cell biology and interested in med school, so she's thinking about medicine and medical science. And we talk a lot about the weight loss drugs. And my youngest son is a geology student at Purdue, so we'll see what he does.”
2025-01-09 · The David Rubenstein Show · Dave Ricks · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, so I worked in that job and then I had some jobs running markets. I ran our Canadian business and I went to China for two and a half years and ran our Chinese business. And I was suddenly called back from China by the CEO, who was a new CEO, and he said, you need to come run our U.S. business. I said, John, don't you want me to finish the job? He said, you need to come back. I think that was the point where I was sort of being cultivated.”
2025-01-09 · The David Rubenstein Show · Dave Ricks · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Not then. I actually really was thinking I'll be here for two years and then we'll be off to Chicago or San Francisco and do something different. But I fell in love with the company. I mean, it's an amazing place. It's a very humanistic culture, but yet very rigorous and scientific. So it's demanding smart people, but people are nice to each other. It's the Midwest. And I fell in love with the mission, which is what could be better than making medicine for people. I worked on a medicine to collaborate and bring into the company for diabetes. And right as I was leaving that job, my mother was diagnosed with diabetes. And she was put on that medicine. And so the sort of the point of what we do just became super salient for me. And I said, this is not a bad way to spend my time. And I said to my wife, let's stay here.”
2025-01-09 · The David Rubenstein Show · Dave Ricks · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I was in the department that looked at M&A transactions and the finance and business development group. Great introduction to the”
2025-01-09 · The David Rubenstein Show · Dave Ricks · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So I left IBM to follow my girlfriend who's now my wife who was going to medical school at Indiana University. So again, back to Indiana. And I needed something to do there, so I decided to enroll in their MBA program, and I got an MBA. Of course, medicine is a four-year degree. MBA is two, so I still needed somebody to do in Indiana, so I joined Lily.”
2025-01-09 · The David Rubenstein Show · Dave Ricks · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So I started studying business in engineering, ended up with a degree in industrial management, which combines those two. And then went to work for IBM in New York. I joined. It was the stock was in an all-time high. When I left, it was at an all-time low. They had a tough time in the early 90s.”
2025-01-09 · The David Rubenstein Show · Dave Ricks · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I was born in Bloomington, Indiana, so who's here by birth? But my dad was a grad student at IU at the time, and we quickly left and moved to California. My mom was from California. And I grew up in the Bay Area and then followed in their footsteps and went to Purdue University back in Indiana.”
2025-01-09 · The David Rubenstein Show · Dave Ricks · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Healthcare is always a topic, and so then our role in it and medicine affordability is a key area. I think everyone would like the U.S. to have a strong biopharma industry that invents amazing medicines like Setbound and makes them here, like Lily does. But at the same time, we want our things to be cheap and accessible to all. Okay, that's hard to solve for all those things, but we can make progress. Like one example is we were known for the insulin pricing challenges we had, and insulin was overpriced in the US, according to the critics. And we were able to bring that price down. I think there are solutions. And by engaging, we can find them.”
2025-01-09 · The David Rubenstein Show · Dave Ricks · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Absolutely, yeah. So we think about our company. Of course, we use scientific methods to create medicines to solve tough problems. We're not really interested in niche problems. We think we're here because we're a big company to do hard problems that are scalable. That's sort of where it makes our business work, but also has the most human impact. So we select diseases that are common and tough. So you mentioned Alzheimer's, neurodegenerative conditions are the most frightening conditions most people think about, Parkinson's, ALS, Alzheimer's. And the science we've been investing there for 30 years, we just launched our first medicine. And so now we're getting revenue after 30 years on that project. And we're working on a prevention study for that same medicine, which could really transform Alzheimer's. We think other neurodegenerative conditions like Parkinson's ALS, et cetera, are becoming more tractable with science. And you'll see us invest heavily in that area going forward.”
2025-01-09 · The David Rubenstein Show · Dave Ricks · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, so insulin really was the birth of the modern company, and this was obviously a terrible condition type 1 diabetes and a breakthrough, and we were part of commercializing that around the world, invented the manufacturing method, and created that business. That was followed by actually penicillin. So during World War II, Lily was commissioned as one of the manufacturers for antibiotics for the Army. From there then iterated for 40 years antibiotics, including still some that are used today like vancomyosin, which is the last line of defense for the worst infections. Prozac we're famous for, which has really brought modern psychiatry into the fold. And of course now Manjaro and Zepbound.”
2025-01-09 · The David Rubenstein Show · Dave Ricks · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“1876. So started by a colonel Eli Lilly, who served in the Civil War. He was a pharmacist by training, led infantry and artillery company, and was a prisoner of war in Alabama, actually. And he saw firsthand the atrocities of medical care in the Civil War. So he started a company with a pledge to say everything that's in this is on the label if it's in there, you know about it, transparency. And that then evolved into a company that embraced the scientific method and began to really adopt the methods that the modern industry has, which is then taking natural products, which is what most medicines were in 1876, and refining them into what we think of as a medicine now.”
2025-01-09 · The David Rubenstein Show · Dave Ricks · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That's right, and science tells us that there's a reason for that. Some people do maintain the weight reduction or stay in that range. They have to change a lot about how they live, burn more energy, eat different foods. So we can all try that. I think we should all try that, actually. But some people cannot. And there's a recent paper in Nature that actually told us why, which is that once you have become obese, your fat cells learn that that's their new state and they defend that state. And so they're actually wanting more energy. And that sends signals to your brain and so forth. So once we as adults gain weight and have that on for a while, it's very, very difficult to reset your thermostat, if you would, to reset that level. So for now, we do recommend if people cannot maintain weight loss off the drug to go back on the drugs and use them chronically.”
2025-01-09 · The David Rubenstein Show · Dave Ricks · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“All drugs that work have side effects and sometimes untoward effects, and we have to warn against both of those. That's why we do controlled studies and measure them carefully. Many people have mild to moderate GI distress when they start. That's why we titrate. We start at a low dose. We recommend a low dose and go up slowly. Almost everybody stays on the”
2025-01-09 · The David Rubenstein Show · Dave Ricks · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“A great idea. We're working on that. You have to inject because it's a protein. And if we orally take proteins, your body thinks it's food and it breaks up proteins. So, you cannot really take these drugs, or you have to bypass the GI track, even though it's affecting, and go right to the bloodstream. But we are working on a pill. We'll have some data actually as early as next year. It's a GLP1 only. It's a single acting. It's not going to be as good as Terzepit or Zepound. It'd be about as good as OzMP, we hope. And this would be a once-daily pill.”
2025-01-09 · The David Rubenstein Show · Dave Ricks · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think in four or five years we'll look back and say, yeah, that's what should have happened. And it's silly that we don't pay for what is already known to be a primary contributor to poor health, which is excess body weight. But people have different motives and incentives. Maybe your employer has a stronger interest in your long-term health. That's probably why many have stepped forward. And then evidence. Our job is to make the evidence, produce the evidence that we're not just having people lose weight, but losing weight with our medicine causes improved health. And we have many studies out this year that are demonstrating that.”
2025-01-09 · The David Rubenstein Show · Dave Ricks · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Some do, more should. So as of today, the federal government actually has a prohibition on reimbursing any of these drugs, which is a problem, I think, although the Biden administration just has advanced rulemaking to change that. That's good news, and we hope the next administration will continue that process.”
2025-01-09 · The David Rubenstein Show · Dave Ricks · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, if you look at the epidemiology charts, it really seems to have started in the 60s growth in overweight and obesity in the country and really accelerated in the 80s and 90s. What are the reasons? How we live certainly is one of them and energy expenditure has to be part of the story. What we eat, though, is probably a more important reason, not just the quantity, which has risen modestly through that period of time, but actually what's in our food has changed. And I think that's also attributed to this.”
2025-01-09 · The David Rubenstein Show · Dave Ricks · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It tells your body you're full and it does that to the brain, to sense of satity. Probably we've learned over time our sense of fullness becomes conditional. So as people eat more habitually, that signal kicks in later and later. And that's a cause and consequence of obesity. It does other things too. It actually makes your stomach fuller because it slows gastric motility. So it slows down your nutrients, which seems counterintuitive, but when you eat when our ancestors were alive 10,000 years ago, meals were rare. And you wanted to absorb all the nutrients out of it. So that signal said, absorb the nutrients.”
2025-01-09 · The David Rubenstein Show · Dave Ricks · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“There are. There's no difference really between the drug that's named for diabetes versus named for obesity for either company. We do that for insurance reasons. We could talk about. But Trazepatide is the latest version. It has two modes of action. So right now, because you just ate lunch, your GI track is communicating with the rest of your body. It's communicating with hormones or proteins and telling it that you've been fed and you need to absorb nutrients and other things that are essential to life because food is essential to life. What we're doing is boosting some of those signals with these medications. They're boosting the signal that you're full, boosting the signal that you no longer want to eat more and boosting signals that you should absorb nutrients that you've consumed. And so ours does that with two different hormones, one called GLP1, a new one called GIP, Ozempic or semaglutide just uses GLP1.”
2025-01-09 · The David Rubenstein Show · Dave Ricks · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It was flatter and we could dose higher to see more weight loss. So that was sort of an accidental breakthrough of trying to make a more convenient form.”
2025-01-09 · The David Rubenstein Show · Dave Ricks · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Pretty early on. So we launched the first GLP1 medication in the world in 2005. It was called exenditide. It was a twice daily injection and it was indicated for people with diabetes. But that was the first effort. On the cover of the next year, our annual report is a woman who was using the drug, and she said, my diabetes is under control, and I noticed I'm losing a little weight. Actually, it was 2006. That's a cover of our ANO report. But we had to improve the medicines to really make them effective for weight loss. One big improvement was to make them weekly. That's a convenience benefit, but even more important, the action of the medicine flatter, meaning more consistent through the day and night. When we had it twice a day, there were ups and downs. And one effect of GOP1 medications is they cause nausea and other GI distress. That's a function of the up and down in your system. So when we made a week...”
2025-01-09 · The David Rubenstein Show · Dave Ricks · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Not me, David, not me. We can't have names that are similar to each other because doctors make prescribing errors. We can't have names that make claims about what the drug does, and we can't have names that only work in English. So we end up with these strange sounding names.”
2025-01-09 · The David Rubenstein Show · Dave Ricks · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source