Scaling biotech and improving global health: lessons from an extraordinary career in medicine | Susan Desmond-Hellmann, M.D., M.P.H.

**Peter Attia** (0:11)
Hey everyone, welcome to the Drive podcast. I'm your host, Peter Attia. This podcast, my website and my weekly newsletter all focus on the goal of translating the science of longevity into something accessible for everyone. Our goal is to provide the best content in health and wellness, and we've established a great team of analysts to make this happen. It is extremely important to me to provide all of this content without relying on paid ads. To do this, our work is made entirely possible by our members, and in return, we offer exclusive member-only content and benefits above and beyond what is available for free. If you want to take your knowledge of this space to the next level, it's our goal to ensure members get back much more than the price of the subscription. If you want to learn more about the benefits of our premium membership, head over to peterattiamd.com/subscribe. My guest this week is Dr. Susan Desmond-Hellmann. Sue is a physician who is board certified in internal medicine and medical oncology. Her impressive career has spanned multiple fields. She has been a leader in the pharmaceutical industry, where she helped develop several groundbreaking drugs, worked as the chancellor of the health science campus of a major university system, UCSF, and served as the CEO of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. She also served on numerous boards of both corporations and nonprofit organizations. She co-chaired the National Academy of Science Committee that pioneered precision medicine and currently sits on the board of OpenAI. I wanted to have Sue on this podcast to speak about her extraordinary career spanning medicine, oncology, biotech, and global health leadership, and to really explore her knowledge on how scientific innovation and leadership can drive better healthcare outcomes. In this episode, we discuss her early days in medicine training at UCSF during the start of the AIDS crisis before people even knew what it was, and the lessons that she learned on handling uncertainty, balancing public health messaging, and accelerating treatment breakthroughs. The decision that she made to specialize in oncology and how her time treating HIV-related cancers in Uganda reinforced the need for integrating epidemiology patient care and policy to combat global health crises. We spoke about her transition into biotech, helping develop breakthrough cancer drugs like Taxol, Herceptin, and Avastin, and the role of precision medicine in improving outcomes. Sue talks about her leadership roles at UCSF and at the Gates Foundation, driving innovation in health care and global health, and the lessons learned from leading health research institutions and global health initiatives, balancing financial constraints with scientific progress and building culture. We end this discussion with a perspective on the future of medicine, including AI's role in health care, such as the opportunities and challenges in leveraging AI for drug development, diagnostics, and expanding access to high quality care. So without further delay, please enjoy my conversation with Dr. Sue Desmond-Hellmann.
Sue, thank you so much for making the trip out to Austin. Really, really was excited to meet you last year. Just an honor to spend part of a day with you and then realize that I could somehow twist your arm into coming on the podcast.

**Susan Desmond-Hellmann** (3:22)
I'm happy to be here. I look forward to it.

**Peter Attia** (3:24)
You've had just an unbelievable career. You are an absolute giant in many ways. I love to always give people a sense of how someone got to where they got. So if I recall, you grew up in Reno, is that right?

**Susan Desmond-Hellmann** (3:35)
I did.

**Peter Attia** (3:36)
And you went to high school and college and even medical school all the way through, right?

**Susan Desmond-Hellmann** (3:40)
I went to Catholic school for 12 years in Reno. I explain that when people wonder if I was at a casino for my childhood. And then I went to University of Nevada, both undergrad and to medical school.

**Peter Attia** (3:52)
Then you ended up at UCSF for your residency?

**Susan Desmond-Hellmann** (3:54)
You know this with residencies. My dream residency was internal medicine at UCSF. My first pick and I got my first pick and went to UCSF as an internal medicine resident.

**Peter Attia** (4:06)
And that would have been what year that you landed there?

**Susan Desmond-Hellmann** (4:09)
1982

**Peter Attia** (4:11)
Okay. So remind me where we were in the AIDS epidemic in San Francisco in 82 What was known?

**Susan Desmond-Hellmann** (4:17)
If you read MMWR, that's 1981 was the first indication. In 1982, we knew that there was something happening, especially to gay men. But there was a sense it was homosexuals, hemophiliacs and Haitians. Remember that?

**Peter Attia** (4:35)
Yeah.

**Susan Desmond-Hellmann** (4:36)