Good morning.
Fortune Brainstorm Health got underway in Marina del Rey, Calif., yesterday, with conversations looking back at all in health that changed during the pandemic, and forward to all that needs to change to realize the full promise of modern medicine and technology. Kicking it off was Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla—a leading example of the new breed of CEO that I write about in my new book, Tomorrow’s Capitalist. (Shameless plug: Buy it here.) Bourla talked about how lessons learned during the pandemic could help address other diseases. For instance, he said:
“When it comes to cancer, the amount of research happening across the globe is unprecedented. In the next five or 10 years, we should see dramatic improvements in cancer, based on the research…We may be able to use mRNA, not to recognize a virus, but to recognize a cancer cell and attack it.”
Other excerpts from the event:
“Business leaders have stepped in to fill the gap. Every business is now a health care business.”
—Arianna Huffington, CEO of Thrive Global, and cochair, Fortune Brainstorm Health
“We’ve learned the importance of global. What happens in South Africa and Chile matters here.”
—Dr. David Agus, CEO of the Lawrence J. Ellison Institute for Transformative Medicine, and cochair, Fortune Brainstorm Health
“I don’t think biotech stocks are going to bounce back right away, but I’m very bullish in the long term.”
—Emily Melton, managing partner, Threshold Ventures
“If you talk to scientists and ask them how effectively they are enabled, you don’t hear ‘everything is great’…Arc is an effort to work backward from the scientists [to create] a place in the world where they think they have the best prospect of doing the greatest work of their careers.”
—Patrick Collison, CEO of Stripe, cofounder of Arc Institute
Up tomorrow, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Delta CEO Ed Bastian, Abbott CEO Robert Ford, CVS Health CEO Karen Lynch, and singer-songwriter John Legend. You can watch the livestream here, courtesy of our founding partner IBM Watson Health.
More news below. And read Shawn Tully’s story on how Elon Musk converted Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal from opponent to ally of his Twitter deal.
Alan Murray
@alansmurray
alan.murray@fortune.com
TOP NEWS
Fed approval
Lisa Cook has been approved as the first Black woman to sit on the board of the Federal Reserve. The former economic adviser to President Barack Obama won a 51-50 party-line vote in the Senate, with Vice President Kamala Harris providing the tiebreaker. Wall Street Journal
Tech regulation
The European Commission is reportedly about to propose forcing Big Tech to actively check for child abuse material on their platforms and in people’s messaging chats, so prepare for another big fight over digital privacy. (Bonus read: Elon Musk says his free-speech plans for Twitter are aligned with the EU’s incoming Digital Services Act, but experts are skeptical to say the least.) Politico
Crypto red flags 1
Coinbase has warned that, were the crypto exchange to go bankrupt, its users could lose all their cryptocurrencies stored in Coinbase accounts. So much for immutable ownership. The company says there’s no risk that it will go bankrupt, though its latest earnings showed declining trading volumes, and its share price is now 80% below its Nasdaq debut little more than a year ago. Fortune
Crypto red flags 2
SEC Chair Gary Gensler: “Crypto’s got a lot of those challenges, of platforms trading ahead of their customers. In fact, they’re trading against their customers often because they’re market-marking against their customers.” Expect the agency to crack down. (Bonus read: The “dollar-pegged stablecoin” UST is now trading below $0.40.) Fortune
AROUND THE WATERCOOLER
Zero COVID
World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus opined that China’s zero-COVID policy is unsustainable “considering the behavior of the virus now and what we anticipate in the future.” His comments have been censored on China’s internet. CNN
Real steel
The U.S. has finally suspended its 25% tariffs on Ukrainian steel, to help bolster the Ukrainian economy during its debilitating invasion by Russia. The EU and U.K. made similar moves a couple weeks ago. CBS News
Stocks and bonds
How best to invest when stocks and bonds are both crashing? Larry Light writes for Fortune: “Thanks to 2022’s unholy trinity of interest rate hikes, inflation, and war, both asset classes now are in the red… Here are five precepts to follow in navigating the dangerous shoals of investing in a downdraft. Or anytime, for that matter.” Fortune
Wooden skyscrapers
The small Norwegian city of Brumunddal will soon lose its claim to fame as home of the world’s tallest wooden skyscraper—the Ascent MKE timber high-rise in Milwaukee will soon take that title from Brumunddal’s Mjøstårnet. But the Norwegian skyscraper’s designers don’t mind, telling Fortune that “the most important thing about this project is to inspire others.” Here’s why wooden skyscrapers are a good thing. Fortune
This edition of CEO Daily was edited by David Meyer.
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