Listen: The Zolgensma lottery, billionaire philanthropy, & life on the buy side

What’s the right way to give drugs away? Is $3 billion even a lot of money? And when is biotech hype justified?

We discuss all that and more on the latest episode of “The Readout LOUD,” STAT’s biotech podcast. First, our colleague Andrew Joseph joins us to discuss Novartis’ lottery system for a lifesaving gene therapy and how it’s affecting families. Then, we discuss pediatrician Priscilla Chan, who is married to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, and her efforts to change the course of human health. Finally, health care investor Les Funtleyder joins us for a chat about the current and future state of his line of work.

Also: We’re coming up on the 100th episode of this podcast, and we’re using the occasion to actualize our long-held dream of running a call-in show. Dial us at 617-981-4714 and leave a message with any question you’d like us to answer on the podcast, and you may just hear it on air in the coming weeks.

For more on what we cover, here’s more on the lottery, and here’s the story on Chan.

We’ll be back next Thursday evening — and every Thursday evening — so be sure to sign up on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Play, or wherever you get your podcasts.

And if you have any feedback for us — topics to cover, guests to invite, vocal tics to cease — you can email [email protected].

Interested in sponsoring a future episode of “The Readout LOUD”? Email us at [email protected].