An interesting story…
Going Founder Mode On Cancer
Sid Sijbrandij is a generational founder. He founded and led GitLab, one of the largest remote companies in the world, from idea-stage startup to NASDAQ-listed software giant.
But in 2022, a six centimeter mass growing from his upper spine threatened to end all of that. He had cancer. What happened next is nothing short of remarkable. Sid went founder mode on his care journey.
In the years since, he’s deployed cutting-edge genomics to profile his disease. Based on this data, he’s developed a growing armamentarium of personalized therapies. As a result, his disease is now undetectable.
A simplistic version of this story could be, “Wow! A brilliant billionaire seemingly cured his cancer. Good for him!” But as I’ve gotten to know Sid, it’s become abundantly clear to me that there is more to the story than that. In an in-depth profile for The Century of Biology, I explore Sid’s journey and what this might mean for the future of cancer care.
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Sid’s story also reveals lessons about the barriers that limit our ability to reimagine cancer care.
Even with extraordinary resources and motivation, Sid has faced major obstacles at every turn. He still struggles to gain access to his own tissues and order diagnostics. When advocating for more aggressive treatment, he has had to contend with a system that equates the Hippocratic Oath of “first do no harm” with a lethargy that can feel like “first do nothing ,” in his view.
But a rigid healthcare system hasn’t been the only bottleneck. There are also structural challenges with how drugs are discovered and developed. And in some cases, even with how drugs are defined .
In recent years, China has adopted a dramatically different posture towards testing experimental medicines that now threatens the future competitiveness of the American biotech sector. This has reopened the debate within the biotech industry about what evidence and standards should be required to test and approve a new experimental medicine. It currently costs far too much.
Most of this conversation centers around a scientific and regulatory paradigm where medicines have one chemical recipe that is given to all eligible patients. But with new technologies, it is increasingly possible to consider making bespoke therapies tailored for an individual patient. Researchers and patients have pushed the FDA to reconsider its regulatory stance towards these types of personalized therapies.
Full story here: