Lilly's Quiet 4.9%

The Boring Molecule Lilly Is Watching

This will be a “best ideas only” bio substack providing actionable, highly digestible and high conviction value to investors focused on quality not quantity. Disclaimer: Nothing in this article (or substack) is considered investment advice and is solely the opinion of the author.

Saloni Dattani’s May biology roundup is mostly devoted to the developments that make this year feel like science fiction, a cure for congenital deafness, recreated snake venom, an emerging generation of antibodies, but tucked near the end is something far less glamorous and, for the purposes of an investor, considerably more interesting: a hair loss pill that actually worked in a registration trial. That pill is VDPHL01, the company behind it is Veradermics, and it trades on the NYSE under the almost too on the nose ticker MANE.

What follows is the case for why this one belongs on your radar, followed by the part of the story that should keep a serious investor honest about what is already priced in.