BioFlash

Big money was evident throughout the 36th J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference — from the $200 an hour it costs to meet with someone in some hotel lobbies or lounges to the price of drugs. But as life-changing, one-shot-and-you're-done gene therapies emerge as options — with price tags approaching or exceeding $1 million — how much is too much?

Lloyd Minor, dean of the Stanford University School of Medicine, talks about the trends capturing health care and biotech. Lloyd Minor's list of three challenges that will define health care's future: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/jpm-2018-three-challenges-define-health-cares-future-lloyd-minor/

Mir Imran developed an early defibrillator and those full-body scanners at airport security. After a career that's also included patents for medical devices, his Rani Therapeutics now is taking on new-age drugs designed to reduce side effects and increase efficacy.

Nick Naclerio oversaw many deals by life sciences tools maker Illumina Inc. Now he's heading up a $230 million fund, which takes its name from and includes Illumina as an investor.

Alice Zhang sees a way of tapping machine learning to accelerate the development of new drugs to treat Parkinson's disease and other brain diseases — and dismiss the ones that won't work.

Dr. Atul Mahableshwarkar, hired last summer by BlackThorn Therapeutics as vice president of clinical development, talks about the South San Francisco drug company's attack on depression.

Billy Crystal talks about the award he accepted from Bring Change To Mind, the mental health nonprofit cofounded by Glenn Close, while Close talks about eliminating the stigma of mental disorders and changing how mental health issues are discussed, diagnosed and treated.