What the Health with Emily Casey

About What the Health with Emily Casey

What The Health cuts through the BS in health innovation with honest conversations, rants, bants, practical insights, and the people shaping what's next. Less hype. More signal. Hosted by Emily Casey — Director of What The Health, one of Australia's leading health innovation media and communities of 11,000+, and Community & Partnership Lead at Tenmile. Brought to you with Tenmile (www.tenmile.com).

Publisher

Day One®

Category

business · news · technology

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

26 Jul 2026

Latest episode

9 Nov 2026

Latest episodes

3 of 7 episodes have a transcript.

1. 

   9 Nov 2026TRANSCRIPT

   Inside the $250M Aussie HealthTech Fund

   Host Emily Casey interviews Dr. Steve Burnell, Managing Director of Tenmile, about Australia's healthtech funding landscape and future investment opportunities.

2. 

   14 Oct 2026TRANSCRIPT

   Longevity BS, Breakthroughs and What Comes Next

   Host Emily Casey interviews Dr. Steven Lu, Everlab's co-founder and Chief Medical Officer, exploring longevity breakthroughs, what health metrics matter, and the future of preventative care.

3. 

   7 Oct 2026TRANSCRIPT

   The Everlab Journey and Building Preventative Health

   Everlab has raised around A$80 million, including a recent A$65 million Series A, reached 20,000 patients and processed more than 21 million biomarker results. Now, after becoming one of Australia’s fastest-growing preventative health companies, it’s taking the model global. (Everlab) I first spoke to the Everlab team back in 2023. I loved what they were building then, but at the time there were plenty of skeptics about whether this kind of deeply personalised, data-heavy model of preventative healthcare could ever really work at scale. Three years later, they’re proving that it can. Longevity has become one of the most hyped corners of healthcare. There’s no shortage of supplements, biohacks, expensive tests and big promises about living longer. But while much of the industry is still selling the idea of longevity, Everlab is turning it into actual healthcare: doctors, diagnostics, longitudinal data, clinical follow-up and preventative care, delivered at increasingly serious scale. And the company is on a rocket-ship trajectory. Its A$65 million Series A was oversubscribed, it now works with more than 180 clinicians and 1,850 healthcare locations, and it is beginning its push into global markets. (Everlab) In Part One of this two-part conversation, I sit down with Dr Steven Lu, Everlab’s co-founder and Chief Medical Officer, to unpack how they actually built it, and what it takes to turn the promise of longevity into real-world medicine. We dive into: The Everlab journey, from an ambitious idea investors were skeptical of to raising around A$80 million and expanding globally Why longevity has exploded, and the gap between the hype surrounding the category and what good preventative medicine actually looks like What the Everlab patient journey actually looks like, and how its model differs from the healthcare most of us experience today How you take enormous amounts of fragmented health information and turn it into something clinically useful rather than simply giving a pile of test results Chapters 00:00 Preview: why prevention so often comes too late 01:04 The longevity boom: what's signal and what's expensive theatre 06:22 What "longevity" should mean: healthspan, not hype 10:24 Why prevention still loses to reactive care 17:48 Everlab's model: one plan built from your records 24:26 How AI and clinicians work together on patient data 28:40 The founding team, the mission and the early cases 34:05 Making prevention stick when you feel fine 38:21 Lessons from closing a whole-body MRI business 42:36 Whole-body scans: a great scan, not a magical one 44:39 Patients as customers: trust, Covid and consumer agency 49:46 Where Everlab and preventative care go next Links and resources What The Health: https://whatthehealth.io/ (https://whatthehealth.io/) Everlab: https://www.everlab.com.au/ (https://www.everlab.com.au/) Dr Steven Lu at Everlab: https://www.everlab.com.au/doctors (https://www.everlab.com.au/doctors) Tenmile Ventures: https://www.tenmile.com/ (https://www.tenmile.com/) Mentioned in the episode: Everlab's Series A announcement (the funding Emily cites): https://www.everlab.com.au/press/everlab-raises-au-65m-series-a-to-make-world-class-preventative-healthcare-something-everyone-can-access (https://www.everlab.com.au/press/everlab-raises-au-65m-series-a-to-make-world-class-preventative-healthcare-something-everyone-can-access) Neko Health's US$700m raise (Emily's reference to a recent whole-body scan raise): https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/health-tech/full-body-scan-startup-neko-health-scores-700m-break-us-market (https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/health-tech/full-body-scan-startup-neko-health-scores-700m-break-us-market) Australians live longer than previous decades but spend more years in poorer health (MJA InSight+): https://insightplus.mja.com.au/2026/27/australians-live-longer-than-previous-decades-but-spend-more-years-in-poorer-health (https://insightplus.mja.com.au/2026/27/australians-live-longer-than-previous-decades-but-spend-more-years-in-poorer-health) National Drug Strategy Household Survey 2022 to 2023 (AIHW; daily smoking is at a record low, while risky drinking is unchanged since 2019): https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/illicit-use-of-drugs/national-drug-strategy-household-survey-2022-2023/contents/summary (https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/illicit-use-of-drugs/national-drug-strategy-household-survey-2022-2023/contents/summary) Early-onset bowel cancer research, University of Melbourne: https://about.unimelb.edu.au/news-resources/awards-and-achievements/research-grants-funding/university-of-melbourne-researchers-funded-to-investigate-early-onset-cancer (https://about.unimelb.edu.au/news-resources/awards-and-achievements/research-grants-funding/university-of-melbourne-researchers-funded-to-investigate-early-onset-cancer) Search for the causes of rising early-onset bowel cancer, Adelaide University: https://adelaide.edu.au/about/news/2026/search-for-causes-of-rapid-rise-in-bowel-cancer-in-young-people/ (https://adelaide.edu.au/about/news/2026/search-for-causes-of-rapid-rise-in-bowel-cancer-in-young-people/) Warranty period of coronary CT angiography (European Heart Journal Cardiovascular Imaging, 2023; background to the "warranty" idea Steven describes): https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/178099808?lang=en_GB (https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/178099808?lang=en_GB) MoreGoodDays (the digital fibromyalgia program Steven mentions): https://moregooddays.com/ (https://moregooddays.com/) Subscribe for more conversations cutting through the noise in health technology, biotech and healthcare innovation. What the Health is brought to you in partnership with Tenmile Ventures. What the Health is part of Day One Network: https://dayone.fm/ (https://dayone.fm/) #HealthTech #Longevity #PreventativeHealth

4. 

   13 Sept 2026

   The Cancer Vaccine That Worked and the Wearables That Don't?

   A personalised mRNA cancer vaccine has succeeded in a late-stage trial for the first time, and Moderna's shares ripped as much as 177% in a single day on the news. Cancer vaccines have been a graveyard for decades. Something changed. In the third What the Health Wrap, host Emily Casey is joined by two of her Tenmile colleagues — Dr Joey Man and Dr Michael Lamprecht, investors and scientists with roughly 30 years between them across molecular biology, therapeutics and biotech in the US, Singapore and Australia — for the lunchroom conversation, not the press release. They start with Moderna and Merck's Phase 3 result. Intismeran autogene, given alongside Keytruda after melanoma surgery, met its primary endpoint of recurrence-free survival and a key secondary endpoint in a trial of more than 1,100 patients. Michael explains what an individualised neoantigen therapy actually is: take a piece of the patient's tumour, work out which signals mark it out from healthy tissue, and turn those into a bespoke vaccine that teaches the immune system what to attack. Joey walks through the part she finds most elegant — an algorithm that reads the patient's normal tissue against their tumour, predicts the mutations a future metastasis would express, picks the top 36, and produces a single-patient batch on a six-to-eight-week timeline deliberately synchronised with the surgery and the standard Keytruda schedule. The more interesting question is why this one worked when so many didn't. Michael's answer has three parts: it is given in combination with a drug that releases the brake on the immune system, it uses antigens specific to that patient rather than the off-the-shelf antigens that failed before, and — critically — the sponsors got regulators to assess the process rather than each individual antigen. The COVID years, for all the reputational damage they did to mRNA, built the manufacturing infrastructure that makes a one-patient batch possible at all. Joey's read on the share price: a fair reward for patience and a pivot, and a sign that the market has not written off mRNA the way the politics suggested. From there the conversation turns to the thing Joey is genuinely worried about. From 1 February 2027, Australian reforms will let health technology providers — wearables and monitoring platforms included — collect, use and disclose individual healthcare identifiers with patient consent for permitted purposes. It is close to a world first, and it lands just as a roughly US$44 billion wearables market pushes from wellness towards diagnostics. Joey's objection is not the pipe, it is the water: "just because the pipe is there, it doesn't mean the water quality inside that pipe is good." Storing consumer-sensor data alongside blood work risks lending it a validity it has not earned. Michael pushes back — data is data, sensors improve, and a continuous monitor beats a patient's recollection in a consult. Emily makes the case that a single blood test at a single moment is not the gold standard people assume either, and that longitudinal data is exactly what has been missing. That tension runs straight into Oura, which is reportedly preparing a US IPO that could value it above US$16 billion while facing a proposed class action over its sleep-tracking claims. Joey is blunt: clinical sleep staging needs EEG, eye movement and muscle movement, and a ring cannot measure EEG. She contrasts the marketed accuracy figure with the 50–53% range she has seen in published work, and notes the awkwardness of defending a 95% claim with "we're not a medical device." Her own ring is a RingConn, bought with expectations set accordingly. Where she does see real progress is in the headband EEG work now being used to track sleep as a treatment-efficacy signal in depression trials. Then women's health, where the same problem shows up wearing better marketing. Whoop's expanded partnership with Natural Cycles lets overnight skin temperature feed an FDA-cleared contraceptive app — but, as Joey points out, the clearance and the algorithm belong to Natural Cycles, not to Whoop. Oura is building out cycle, pregnancy, postpartum and menopause features. Emily's UltraHuman sends her cycle predictions that are unnervingly accurate, and none of them make the wellness-versus-clinical line any clearer. All three agree the demand is real and long overdue: women have been asking for information about their own bodies that the research never generated. Joey came to the recording from the Women's Health Foundry investment roundtable, and gives a live read on why the money has been slow. The blockage is upstream — without the research, you cannot define the problem precisely enough to build or fund a solution. Australia produces strong women's health research; the work now is consolidating it into something commercially investable, because commercial dollars move faster than academic ones. Michael's counter is that pharma appetite follows market clarity, not the other way around, and that the market is unambiguously huge. Sun Pharma's roughly US$11.75 billion acquisition of Organon — the women's health business Merck spun out in 2021 — is the proof point. The last stretch is neuropsychiatry, and Michael's home turf. Eli Lilly has agreed to acquire atai Beckley for US$2.8 billion upfront and up to US$1 billion more in milestones, for a lead programme delivering a short in-clinic psychedelic experience in treatment-resistant depression. Psilocybin and MDMA are both up for approval decisions. Michael explains what a neuroplastogen is — a drug that reopens the brain's ability to rewire, on the theory that depression traps people in a loop they cannot think their way out of — and why he is most interested in the programmes chasing that effect without the trip. Xylo, formerly Psylo, is the Tenmile portfolio company working on exactly that; Michael sits on its board. His prediction: full-day psilocybin protocols will be a niche, because the personnel and infrastructure required cannot compete with a short-acting drug that produces a comparable result. You'll also hear why Michael thinks AI applied to small molecules is the most underhyped thing in the field, Joey's case for patient-relevant preclinical models replacing animal models in women's health, an unhedged "wearables" when Emily asks what's most overhyped, and a rapid fire that lands on the table-flip emoji, the side eye, the generosity of strangers on the other side of the world, Chopin's Étude No. 5, and two very tired investors who would both quite like some sleep. Guests Dr Joey Man Investment Associate, Tenmile Ventures (Melbourne). PhD in Molecular Biology from Monash University's Biomedicine Discovery Institute (breast cancer cell signalling and metastasis); former CSIRO postdoc researching zero-gravity effects on stem cells, with an investing background from Main Sequence Ventures and CSIRO's ON Accelerator. Dr Michael Lamprecht Investment Manager, Tenmile Ventures (Sydney), specialising in biotech and early-stage investment. PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Columbia University; previously Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Xora Innovation and Director of Regulatory Affairs at EpiBone, with 15+ years building regulatory and clinical strategy for cell-based therapies. Chapters: 00:00 Cold open 01:03 Welcome and meet the guests 02:59 This fortnight's headlines 04:57 Merck and Moderna's personalised cancer vaccine, explained 11:06 Why working with regulators made this vaccine possible 19:18 Australia's 2027 healthcare identifier reform and the wearables boom 26:38 Oura's sleep-tracking accuracy claims and the class action 30:29 Wearables push into women's health 36:21 Why women's health struggles to attract investment 41:50 Big pharma's next-gen psychiatry bet 51:43 Rapid fire Links and resources Merck and Moderna — Phase 3 INTerpath-001 results: https://www.merck.com/news/merck-and-moderna-announce-phase-3-interpath-001-trial-of-intismeran-autogene-plus-keytruda-met-endpoints-of-recurrence-free-survival-rfs-and-distant-metastasis-free-survival-dmfs-in-patient/ (https://www.merck.com/news/merck-and-moderna-announce-phase-3-interpath-001-trial-of-intismeran-autogene-plus-keytruda-met-endpoints-of-recurrence-free-survival-rfs-and-distant-metastasis-free-survival-dmfs-in-patient/) Australia's healthcare identifier reforms, effective 1 February 2027: https://www.minterellison.com/articles/digital-health-reforms-the-regulatory-reform-omnibus-act (https://www.minterellison.com/articles/digital-health-reforms-the-regulatory-reform-omnibus-act) Department of Health — Healthcare Identifiers Service: https://www.health.gov.au/topics/health-technologies-and-digital-health/about/healthcare-identifiers (https://www.health.gov.au/topics/health-technologies-and-digital-health/about/healthcare-identifiers) Oura's reported US IPO plans: https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/24/oura-is-reportedly-eyeing-a-september-ipo-that-could-value-it-at-more-than-16b/ (https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/24/oura-is-reportedly-eyeing-a-september-ipo-that-could-value-it-at-more-than-16b/) Whoop's expanded Natural Cycles partnership: <a...

5. 

   26 Aug 2026

   The Psychedelic Resurgence: From Counterculture to Clinical Breakthrough with Dr Michael Winlo

   One in three people will experience a mental health disorder in their lifetime, PTSD went more than 20 years without a new approved treatment, and spending keeps rising while outcomes keep getting worse. Against that backdrop, Australia has become the first country in the world where psychiatrists can prescribe MDMA and psilocybin. In this episode, host Emily Casey sits down with Dr Michael Winlo, Chief Scientific Officer at Emyria, the company behind the Empax network of psychedelic-assisted therapy clinics. Michael trained as a doctor, spent four years in Palantir's healthcare team in Silicon Valley, then returned to Perth to run a clinical trial site — an experience that convinced him care delivery and evidence generation belong together, and led to Emyria. Michael explains how the two legal treatments actually work. MDMA floods the brain with serotonin and oxytocin, quietens an overactive amygdala and lets patients with post-traumatic stress disorder work through trauma in therapy without being overwhelmed by fear or shame. Psilocybin quietens the default mode network behind rumination and negative self-talk — Michael's metaphor is shaking up a snow globe and letting the snow settle into new patterns — and both drugs open a roughly seven-day window of heightened neuroplasticity that therapy can use. The pair trace the strange history that got us here: MDMA first synthesised by Merck in 1912, psychedelics on the cover of psychiatry journals in the 1960s, roughly 500,000 people given MDMA in therapeutic settings before the war on drugs shut the research down. Charitable funding through MAPS kept the science alive, and the resulting phase 2 and 3 trials left the TGA unable to maintain that these drugs had no therapeutic value — leading to the world-first rescheduling in 2023. Michael then walks through what treatment at an Empax clinic involves: careful screening, a two-therapist dyad that stays with the patient for the whole journey, six-to-eight-hour dosing days in a low-stimulus room, and integration sessions that turn insights into durable habits. Emyria has now treated more than 100 patients, with rapid improvement that appears durable for most — results that have brought funders like Medibank and the Department of Veterans' Affairs on board. The conversation closes on what it will take to make this mainstream: health-economic evidence for a treatment that costs around $10,000 a dosing cycle, the watershed of a first FDA approval, more sensible regulation of who can deliver therapy, and the infrastructure and training to meet demand. Michael argues psychedelics are still under-hyped — used today as a last resort when they may do the most good earlier in a patient's journey — and leaves clinicians with one message: learn with your patients. Guest Dr Michael Winlo is Chief Scientific Officer at Emyria, the ASX-listed company behind the Empax network of psychedelic-assisted therapy clinics, treating post-traumatic stress disorder and treatment-resistant depression under the TGA's Authorised Prescriber Scheme. Trained as a medical doctor, he spent four years in Palantir's healthcare team in Silicon Valley and led Perth's Linear Clinical Research before joining Emyria to build a model of care that treats patients and generates evidence at the same time. Chapters 00:00 Psychedelics return to healthcare 00:57 What Emyria and the Empax clinics do 02:08 From medicine to Palantir and back to Perth 08:32 Why mental health care is falling behind 12:37 What psychedelics actually are 13:55 How MDMA-assisted therapy works 17:44 Psilocybin and the default mode network 21:05 A century of history: from Merck to the war on drugs 24:18 The revival: MAPS, new trials and Australia's rescheduling 27:17 Why psychiatry innovates slowly 29:47 Inside treatment: screening, dosing days and integration 33:33 The data so far: 100+ patients, Medibank and the DVA 35:18 Ketamine and the coming wave of new treatments 36:47 FDA approval and the funding shift 43:30 Emyria's ten-year vision 45:47 Bottlenecks: training, regulation and infrastructure 47:31 Psychedelic therapy in 2035 49:09 Rapid fire: hype, books and one message for clinicians Links and resources Emyria: https://emyria.com/ (https://emyria.com/) Empax Centre: https://empaxcentre.com/ (https://empaxcentre.com/) TGA — re-scheduling of psilocybin and MDMA, questions and answers: https://www.tga.gov.au/resources/publication/scheduling-decisions-final/notice-final-decision-amend-or-not-amend-current-poisons-standard-june-2022-acms-38-psilocybine-and-mdma/re-scheduling-psilocybin-and-mdma-poisons-standard-questions-and-answers (https://www.tga.gov.au/resources/publication/scheduling-decisions-final/notice-final-decision-amend-or-not-amend-current-poisons-standard-june-2022-acms-38-psilocybine-and-mdma/re-scheduling-psilocybin-and-mdma-poisons-standard-questions-and-answers) MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies): https://maps.org/ (https://maps.org/) COMPASS Pathways: https://compasspathway.com/ (https://compasspathway.com/) The Beginning of Infinity by David Deutsch: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beginning_of_Infinity (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beginning_of_Infinity) Moonshots with Peter Diamandis: https://www.diamandis.com/podcast (https://www.diamandis.com/podcast) About the host Emily Casey is the founder of What the Health and host of the show, making major developments in health technology and innovation easier to understand. What the Health is brought to you in partnership with Tenmile Ventures. What the Health is part of Day One Network, the podcast and media network from W2D1 Media: https://dayone.fm/ (https://dayone.fm/)

6. 

   13 Aug 2026

   HealthGPT and What Happens Now AI Is Table Stakes

   A survey of more than 1,800 clinicians across 25 countries found 83% had already adopted AI before their workplace had any governance in place. Healthcare, it turns out, is not just adopting AI. It is being redesigned around it. In the second What the Health Wrap, host Emily Casey is joined by Dr Simon Kos, Global Chief Medical Officer at Heidi, and Dr Janice Tan, GP and General Manager of Clinical Innovation at Bupa, to work through what the fortnight's biggest healthcare stories actually mean. Simon uses Heidi's Pressure Points report to bust some long-held myths. Clinicians are not Luddites; get product-market fit right and they will adopt ahead of their own organisations. Product-led growth is not impossible in healthcare. And the idea that everything must run through a single electronic medical record screen does not survive contact with the reality of shadow AI. Janice agrees, arguing that GPs are among the most innovative professionals there are, and that what matters is not clicks or screens but the value exchange. The conversation turns to where this leaves general practice. Both guests expect voice to become the default way information is entered within two years, freeing clinicians for deeper, more present consultations rather than merely shorter ones. Janice makes the point that scribes save time not to compress the visit but to enrich it. Simon argues that scribes should be commoditised, because they are the entry point to something bigger: infusing evidence and decision support into the flow of care. They also examine what happens when patients bring their own AI into the room. OpenAI's launch of Health in ChatGPT, and the broader move by frontier labs into consumer health, could be the single biggest driver of health equity, filling the gap for people who previously had no care at all. But Simon draws a firm line between consumer-grade and clinical-grade health, pointing to the liability caps some providers attach to their advice and the accountability the medical profession is held to. The regulatory framework for quality and safety is not yet in place, but it is coming fast. Janice explains Bupa's own metamorphosis from health insurer to health organisation, investing heavily in primary and preventive care across medical, dental, optical and psychology clinics, and rolling out AI scribes to its clinicians under strong governance. Simon zooms out to a health system whose old boundaries between payer, provider, acute, primary and consumer care are blurring, driven by digital capability, policy reform and a wave of consolidation. The panel closes on the future of care. They discuss how to equip the next generation of doctors without letting AI become a crutch that erodes clinical judgement, what digital health's US$7.4 billion funding rebound says about capital concentrating into a handful of mega rounds, and why the companies winning big are the ones co-designing with clinicians from day one. Then they imagine the patient journey in 2035, from wellness chairs in autonomous vehicles to consultations that feel, as Janice puts it, more human. Guests Dr Simon Kos is Global Chief Medical Officer at Heidi, the AI clinical documentation company. A physician who practised critical care medicine before moving into digital health, he was previously Global Chief Medical Officer at Microsoft and CEO of Next Practice, and is a long-standing figure in Australian digital health. Dr Janice Tan is a GP and the General Manager of Clinical Innovation at Bupa, where she leads the rollout and piloting of AI solutions across the group's health services. She also advises the RACGP and works to uplift the digital health capability of the GP profession. Chapters 00:00 Introducing the What the Health Wrap 00:07 Guest updates: Heidi's global expansion and life in general practice 03:03 The fortnight's five biggest headlines 05:11 Heidi's Pressure Points report: adopting AI ahead of governance 06:16 Busting the myths about clinicians and technology 10:11 Where general practice is heading: voice by default and deeper consults 13:00 Patients are bringing their own AI to the consult 14:21 Health in ChatGPT and big tech's move into consumer health 18:33 Consumer-grade versus clinical-grade care and the regulation gap 23:41 Bupa's shift from health insurer to health company 30:29 Training the next generation without de-skilling 33:43 Digital health's US$7.4 billion funding landscape 35:31 Finding the wedge: co-designing with clinicians 38:46 The 2035 patient journey 42:46 Rapid fire: emojis, surprises and companies to watch Links and resources Heidi (https://www.heidihealth.com/) Heidi's Pressure Points 2026 report (https://www.heidihealth.com/en-gb/blog/pressure-points-2026-report) Bupa Australia (https://www.bupa.com.au/) Bupa's Connected Care strategy (https://media.bupa.com.au/bupa-unveils-its-future-of-healthcare---connected-care/) Bupa to acquire Partnered Health Group (https://media.bupa.com.au/bupa-asia-pacific-delivers-steady-growth-while-reinvesting-in-healthcare/) Health in ChatGPT (https://openai.com/index/health-in-chatgpt/) Rock Health H1 2026 funding and market overview (https://rockhealth.com/insights/h1-2026-funding-and-market-overview-durable-roots-shifting-routes/) Australia's ban on genetic discrimination in life insurance (https://lsj.com.au/articles/genetic-testing-results-now-protected-from-life-insurers-new-laws-widely-welcomed/) Claude for Healthcare (https://www.anthropic.com/news/healthcare-life-sciences) About the host Emily Casey is the founder of What the Health and host of the What the Health Wrap, making major developments in health technology and innovation easier to understand. The What the Health Wrap is brought to you by What the Health in partnership with Tenmile Ventures (https://www.tenmile.com/). What the Health is part of Day One Network (https://dayone.fm/), the podcast and media network from W2D1 Media.

7. 

   26 Jul 2026

   The A$2.2B Myricx Bio Deal, AI's Healthcare Land Grab and Preventive Health

   Novartis has agreed to acquire Myricx Bio for up to US$1.5 billion, approximately A$2.2 billion, in a major outcome for a UK biotech company with deep Australian venture backing. In the inaugural What the Health Wrap, host Emily Casey is joined by Dr Jackie Rabec, co-founder and Chief Product Officer at ThinkMD.ai, and Dr Prashanth Rajan, Associate at Brandon Capital, to work through what the fortnight's biggest healthcare stories actually mean. Prashanth explains how Myricx Bio evolved from small-molecule science into a new class of antibody-drug conjugate payloads. He discusses why the proposed acquisition matters for cancer therapeutics, investors and Australia's biotech ecosystem, while cautioning that the ultimate test will still come through clinical development. The conversation then turns to artificial intelligence. Jackie argues that healthcare companies need more than a powerful model. They need a genuine problem, sustainable economics, clinical workflow integration and the change management required for adoption. Prashanth applies the same test to AI drug discovery, where molecular designs must still survive laboratory testing and clinical trials. The panel also examines proposed changes to Australia's R&amp;D Tax Incentive. Under the current proposal, the offset would be refundable for eligible businesses younger than ten years and non-refundable for older businesses. Prashanth explains why that distinction could affect biotech companies just as expensive clinical programs begin to scale, potentially pushing investment, clinical activity and company growth offshore. AdvanCell's US$315 million Series D offers a timely example of what sustained local support can produce. The company is advancing a Lead-212 targeted alpha therapy for metastatic prostate cancer while expanding its isotope supply and manufacturing infrastructure. Finally, the panel asks whether preventive health and longevity represent the future of care or another layer available mainly to people who can afford it. Everlab's A$65 million Series A and Neko Health's US$700 million Series C demonstrate growing demand, but questions remain about equity and whether earlier intervention can reduce pressure on public healthcare systems. Guests Dr Jackie Rabec is co-founder and Chief Product Officer at ThinkMD.ai, which builds offline-capable clinical decision-support tools for frontline health workers. She previously worked at Google and was Head of Product at Heidi Health. Dr Prashanth Rajan is an Associate at Brandon Capital and leads its activities in New South Wales. He has a background in bioinformatics, biochemistry and molecular biology. Chapters 00:00 Introducing the What the Health Wrap 08:07 Myricx Bio's proposed US$1.5 billion acquisition 11:13 Antibody-drug conjugates and Australian biotech 15:35 AI in healthcare beyond administration 24:50 The promise and limits of AI drug discovery 28:46 Proposed changes to Australia's R&amp;D Tax Incentive 35:22 AdvanCell's US$315 million Series D 42:25 Preventive health, longevity and primary care 53:28 Rapid fire: platform risk, companies to watch and useful resources Links and resources ThinkMD.ai: https://www.thinkmd.ai/ (https://www.thinkmd.ai/) Dr Prashanth Rajan at Brandon Capital: https://brandoncapital.vc/team_member/prashanth-rajan/ (https://brandoncapital.vc/team_member/prashanth-rajan/) Myricx Bio acquisition announcement: https://brandoncapital.vc/2026/07/06/brandon-capital-announces-agreement-for-novartis-to-acquire-portfolio-company-myricx-bio-to-advance-new-class-of-cancer-therapeutics/ (https://brandoncapital.vc/2026/07/06/brandon-capital-announces-agreement-for-novartis-to-acquire-portfolio-company-myricx-bio-to-advance-new-class-of-cancer-therapeutics/) Australian Treasury's R&amp;D Tax Incentive proposal: https://treasury.gov.au/sites/default/files/2026-06/p2026-781365_0.pdf (https://treasury.gov.au/sites/default/files/2026-06/p2026-781365_0.pdf) Claude for Healthcare: https://www.anthropic.com/news/healthcare-life-sciences (https://www.anthropic.com/news/healthcare-life-sciences) Chai Discovery's US$400 million Series C: https://www.chaidiscovery.com/news/series-c (https://www.chaidiscovery.com/news/series-c) AdvanCell's US$315 million Series D: https://svhealthinvestors.com/news/advancell-closes-us-315-million-oversubscribed-series-d-financing-to-advance-targeted-alpha-therapies-and-expand-clinical-and-commercial-manufacturing-infrastructure (https://svhealthinvestors.com/news/advancell-closes-us-315-million-oversubscribed-series-d-financing-to-advance-targeted-alpha-therapies-and-expand-clinical-and-commercial-manufacturing-infrastructure) Everlab: https://www.everlab.com.au/ (https://www.everlab.com.au/) Neko Health's US$700 million Series C: https://www.nekohealth.com/se/en/press/neko-health-raises-usd700m-series-c-ahead-of-us-launch (https://www.nekohealth.com/se/en/press/neko-health-raises-usd700m-series-c-ahead-of-us-launch) About the host Emily Casey is the founder of What the Health and host of the What the Health Wrap, making major developments in health technology and innovation easier to understand. The What the Health Wrap is brought to you by What the Health in partnership with Tenmile Ventures. What the Health is part of Day One Network, the podcast and media network from W2D1 Media: https://dayone.fm/ (https://dayone.fm/)

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