Some Future Day

Marc Beckman: Dr. Peter Kash, welcome to Some Future Day. It is so great to see you. And finally, I've been wanting to have you on this show for so long, so it's wonderful to have you join me on some future day. Congratulations. I'd be remiss to not mention the fact that you are a new grandfather. How does it feel to be a new grandfather?
Dr. Peter Kash: Well, first of all, thank you. And, and, and, and, uh, it's really great to be on with you. We have such a journey. Uh, it's, it's, it's an, it's an incredible feeling besides my four children. I never had the sensation when I held my granddaughter for the first time. It was different than holding your children. Uh, so it's an amazing feeling and amazing, uh, journey of continuity.
Uh, and because your show is about the future, I'm really looking forward to seeing how her future is.
Marc Beckman: Well, Peter, that's really sweet. A lot of people tell me though, that being a grandparent, the beauty of holding the baby is that you give it back. Is that what you're talking about? The fact that you said, okay, my, my daughter is going to get this baby back in an hour and I'm going with my wife and we're getting out to dinner and we don't have to deal with diapers and all of that.
Dr. Peter Kash: yeah. Uh, I wouldn't let the baby go, to be honest with you. I mean, uh, uh, thank God she has, uh, great parents and, uh, my daughter-in-law's amazing. She's a hero. Um, and my in-laws are very helpful. And my father, uh, my son's father-in-law's, a medical doctor, my daughter-in-law's a nurse. So, um, we have all this expertise, but it's all about love.
It's that that's what it's all about. It's all about love.
Marc Beckman: That's really beautiful, Peter. All kidding aside, congratulations again to you and your family. I only wish you the best. It's interesting that you're talking about a few people with, um, medical backgrounds because your almost 40 year career has been, you know, super impressive and, um, high impact within the world of medicine.
You've shepherded numerous oncology programs from ideation all the way through commercialization. It's hard for people to understand though, what somebody like you does for a living. Could you take a minute and just, uh, let my audience understand what your, what your exact role is within, uh, the, the treatment and drug community, please?
Dr. Peter Kash: yeah. It's simple. I, I realized I wasn't that smart at 18 years of age as a freshman in college. That, that, that's the truth of the matter. I was a wannabes. Mark. I'm being serious.
Marc Beckman: It's.
Dr. Peter Kash: it, it, it, it, it, it's, it's being, I, I, I was a wannabe scientist actually as a teenager. Uh, I actually invented an orthopedic knee brace, uh, got some venture capital behind it and try to make a go of it as a 17-year-old.
And, uh, even in business school and grad school, uh, in finance, I did my thesis of the effects of barometric pressure on, on serotonin and, and, and how that affects decision making on Wall Street. Um, so I have a passion for science, but I really didn't have that, that, that missing ingredient that allows you to do become a medical doctor, a surgeon, or a pure scientist.
But Mark, I realized that you don't have to get the Oscar. You can get a supporting Oscar. And I decided at a very age that I would support scientists and support doctors. And I was blessed beyond my imagination, uh, to get into the right position at the right time. Uh, literally as you just said, uh, it's gonna be, uh, it's 37 years ago, 37 years ago.
And, uh, from that journey, uh, we have seven drugs approved at the FDA. If, if I may, just for a quick second. The reason I got into this industry was in 19 68, 19 68, in Belmore, in Belmore, on Natta Boulevard. There was a young girl, uh, we were playing Ring Olivio, like hide and go seek, and we were running and her wig fell off.
She was six years old. I'll just mention her first name, uh, Mary. And, and, and we were seven years old. And what do boys and girls do when they see a, a, a girl with no hair? Uh, we laughed and a few months later she died of leukemia. And, uh, fast forward, uh, uh, uh, the first drug that I was able to get approved with my partners was a drug called Arsenic Trioxide.
Yeah, actually the first drug approved from China by the U-S-F-D-A for pediatric leukemia. And, and, and that scientist in China became the Minister of Health of China. It's crazy. From 1968. Fast forward 35 years, and that was the first drug I got approved for leukemia.
Marc Beckman: so your, your primary focus Peter has been, um, with regards to cancer, right? It's, it's, it's really an, an onco, oncological type of, um, approach here. Yeah.
Dr. Peter Kash: Yeah. I, I mean, we do other things. Uh, our group, you know, my, my, uh, the company with my partners at, at, at Camelot, uh, bio capita. We, we look at everything. We look at autoimmune diseases. We have a drug now for autoimmune disease. We have a, a, a, a PET project in Florida for pediatric mitochondrial genetic disorders.
Horrific, horrific diseases. Uh, we're going, we're going after one disease called, uh, uh, Lee Lee Syndrome. Um, uh, uh, uh, uh. You, you, you're, you, you're, you have a lifespan of, of, of, of, of three years. Um, uh, uh, Lieber's syndrome. You go blind by age 30. Uh, so we're diversified, but oncology is our sweet spot and we're getting close.
We're really, really getting close. I was talking to your producers beforehand, just a quick statistic and people could correct me. Uh, if, if you're a stage four leukemia today, uh, you have a 78% chance of survival. Stage four, uh, not stage one, not stage two, stage four, we're about eight years away, maybe 10 years.
With, with combination therapy and ai, we will have similar statistics for solid cancers, prostate, breast, ovarian, colorectal, head and neck. We're living in Periclean times right now in medicine. It's gonna be unbelievable.
Marc Beckman: so let's talk for a minute about Camelot, bio Capital and artificial intelligence. Um, you know, obviously ai, we've had a few, a few doctors on this show and people in biotech, and it's very clear to us that AI powered platforms are accelerating target discovery, uh, lead optimization and patient stratification.
And it's my understanding and, and correct me if I'm wrong, that Camelot Bio Capital embraced computational approaches in its early company formation. So it's interesting that, um, technology was always a big part of, and my question to you is basically what's your view on AI as it relates to the biggest unmet potential yet?
Like, where do you think AI is going to drive these critical parts of innovation in, in, in the pharmacy and pharmaceutical and, and biotech space?
Dr. Peter Kash: mark, are you sitting down?
Marc Beckman: I am.
Dr. Peter Kash: We are equivalent to caveman, just discovering fire. That's where we are with ai. It's gonna be mind boggling. We, we cannot fathom what a, the role that AI is going to play in a very healthy way, not in a scary way, for example, with difficult cancers and difficult, difficult, uh, uh, autoimmune diseases, uh, Ms.
Parkinson's, uh, diseases such as Alzheimer's, Crohn's, um, the whole gamut. It's gonna take combination therapy. It's not a mag. There's no magic drug. There's no magic bullet, which is a great name for a book that they had out. Um, it, it, it's gonna be combination therapy. The only way for us to harness which drug to use first, which one to use second, which receptor to go after first, which one to go after second is only with ai.
Otherwise, it would take hundreds of man years to figure that out. So I think that AI and ultimately quantum, uh, will play a a not will, is playing a huge role, saving hundreds of millions of dollars and saving years. Uh, not forget about getting into humans just in the in vivo studies, in the animal studies.
So I am extremely bullish in the combination of AI and taking a multitude of drugs combined combination therapy that within seven to eight years, uh, uh, uh, I believe in my opinion that the majority of solid cancers will have similar data like the blood cancers l uh, leukemia lymphoma, where 78 80%, uh, will have a survival rate in com with combination therapy.
And, and I think that the three areas that are most exciting for me is, and others have others, other modalities is, is targeted immunotherapy. Um, in, in combination with traditional today checkpoint inhibitors, uh, cell therapy, um, I'm gonna say, uh, mRNA therapeutics, uh, uh, not the ones that were specifically used with res respect to COVID.
I, um, those three modalities, uh, in combination, um, is, is gonna be mind boggling. Uh, uh, and by the way, not just for cancer. Uh, for, for, for, for Parkinson's. Alzheimer's and, and, and, and the like. Um, uh, there's a new, new road, a new verticals in, in mitochondria. There's a company I'm working with now called, uh, cell, uh, cell and energy, uh, focusing on dysfunctional mitochondria.
Uh, whether you're talking about autism or chronic fatigue syndrome, fatigue syndrome, cf s or type two diabetes, or even cancer mitochondria play a major role in that. And, and it's all about energy. Remember, from basic biology in 10th grade, a TP. So I'm, I'm so excited I get up. It, it's better than being Michael Jordan in the morning.
If, if Michael's watching the show, you know, I defer to him. But still, it's better than being Michael Jordan in the morning.
Marc Beckman: So, Peter, it's incredible. So you have all of these different emerging, essentially what you're talking about is like emerging modalities that your companies are going to leverage for these new discoveries. But then if all, if it seems like we're in like this explosive moment, there's gonna be tremendous amount of innovation, growth, and discovery to help humankind right across the planet.
But from your perspective as a chairman, as a chief executive officer, um, who's, you know, right now managing you've, you've created billions of dollars in value, but you're also overseeing, you know, hundreds of millions of dollars, billions of dollars. In fact, I know it's been, we've had guests on the show that said sometimes it takes even like a billion dollars for big pharma to create a, a, um, a drug.
Um, what's your criteria then? How are you going to sift through and prioritize, you know, what, what your goals should be? How do you, how do you. Uh, figure that out.
Dr. Peter Kash: Well, you asking all the right questions and I don't wanna forget something. Uh, so I, I've had many mentors in my life over, you know, a 40 year career. You have a lot of mentors and, and, and, and one of my mentors and actually, uh, a colleague, his name is Dr. Esteban Vela. Uh, he's from Columbia and now lives in Switzerland for the last 30 plus years.
Brilliant neurologist. And we were once in a meeting, and I remember the investor said, so show me your competition. And Esteban being a PhD neurologist said that, sir, we don't have competition. And the investor got a little bit upset. He goes, what do you mean everybody has competitors? He goes, sir, I look to everybody as collaborators.
And that's what I love about our industry. When you put scientists in a room together without lawyers. They get to share, uh, uh, uh, that was a joke. They get to share, um,
Marc Beckman: Well, I'm a lo, you know, my background is law, so I don't really, I don't take kindly to that.
Dr. Peter Kash: Uh, you know, it's amazing when you go to conferences, uh, private conferences and consortiums of, for brain cancer, uh, uh, prostate cancer, ovarian cancer around the world. Everybody's having a beer or a glass of wine sharing with each other, some of the stuff they're working on without giving away the patents and all that, everyone's helping one another.
It, it's, it's, it's the most incredible industry. Everyone is helping one another and it's allowing each one to get closer. And now, more specifically to your question, um, thank God I have people that work with me that are significantly, uh, uh, smarter than myself. And our scientific advisors are, uh, just as smart, if not more so than them.
And there is a methodology, some of the things we do, which is standard with all my, uh, collaborators out there, not using the word competitors, uh, is, is looking at peer reviewed, uh, journals that some of the research they did has been peer reviewed by some of the major journals. New England Journal of Medicine, the Lancet, uh, cell, et cetera.
Second is the greatest thing America has given the world, in my opinion, besides our culture. I think America's the greatest country in the history of mankind is, uh, Richard Nixon created the War on Cancer and, and with the, uh, NIH and NCI, uh, plus or minus 40 billion a year is given in research grants. Uh, and, and you get, it's amazing.
That's why we have more or less a monopoly and hopefully we can continue with that, um, in, in, in, in, in this space. So
Marc Beckman: We meaning America. America.
Dr. Peter Kash: yeah, oh, America, United States of America, you know, 95% of all the major discoveries. 90 plus percent come, come, come, come from America. It's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's in our culture, it's in our DNA, no pun intended.
I just thought of that one. Uh, this concept of entrepreneurship. We are the only country in the world I've been to. I've been to now 73 countries around the world, uh, lectured in a lot of them. We are the only country in the world whose culture accepts failure. Think of that for a second. If you have failure in Japan, you're toast.
Toast. You have failure in Europe, go try finding a new job in America. It's a badge of honor. Failure is a badge of honor. You look at the Forbes 400, when I was teaching at Wharton and I taught at Polytechnic and in Japan, at Neon University and at Hebrew University in Israel, I used to tell my students, look at the top 400 people on the Forbes.
They all had failure, every one of them. Multitude of failure. And, and that goes into the field of science and engineering, uh, uh, uh, not just biotech. Entrepreneurs are allowed to fail in America, uh uh, and, and get a second shot. And even a third shot.
Marc Beckman: but some of your companies are also overseas, right? Like I believe, again, uh, correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that you're the co-founder of Tog Immune, which is Swiss-based,
Dr. Peter Kash: Right. So, TA Taun,
Marc Beckman: So
Dr. Peter Kash: it's an incredible company. It's based off a technology of a very famous professor named Professor Alex Levitsky, uh, uh, from Hebrew University. He should have won the Nobel Prize for his work in Taiwanese kinases. That's another story. And he was also the, uh, probably the founding scientist credited for Gleevac, the first billion dollar drug for Novartis.
And, uh, we took that technology from, uh, Hebrew University and moved it to Basel, which is the epicenter of, of pharmaceuticals between Novartis and Roche. And had some brilliant scientists, and we recently merged that into a company here in Florida, uh, uh, called Eye Oncology, which is, which is, uh, three of the most brilliant, four of the most brilliant people I've ever met in my life.
Uh, uh, uh, uh, Dr. Catherine Flores, Dr. Duane Mitchell. Uh, uh, two of the nicest people, a brilliant surgeon, uh, Dr. Elias Sior. He's a pediatric neurosurgeon with a PhD. And, uh, we just brought on recently A CEO, Dr. Edgar Rodriguez. And the compassion, they have no one talks about options in stock, options and warrant.
The, the goal is to nail pediatric brain cancer, pediatric GBM seven days a week, 24 hours a day. Everyone is working around the world trying to nail pediatric GBM. And what's fascinating is that pediatric glioblastoma. And adult glioblastoma is on the same train track. It's called the EGF receptor, EGF and ovarian cancer.
Colorectal cancer head and neck cancer is along the same receptor. So if you can nail one of those cancers, there's a higher probability that you can go after these other cancers. And it goes back to the genesis of your question before is the different modalities, these modalities in combination, will be able to nail different parts of this receptor to control the cancer and in my belief, ultimately, uh, potentially cure the cancer.
Um, if that helps explain a little bit.
Marc Beckman: A little bit. So, you know, you mentioned glioblastoma, and I'd be remiss to not, uh, talk about my close friend who is like a family member to me, Maura Sharon, who passed away recently of glioblastoma. It's a hideous disease, and it looks like there was like no, no, um, help in sight from a drug perspective.
In fact, Maura tried, uh, she tested some new drugs. They allowed for her to test some new drugs, but it was just hideous what she went through. And then ultimately she passed away. Um, you know, I, I, I loved that woman, uh, dearly. She's, you know, a dear, dear friend. Um, so it, it's, you know, it's complicated and I guess, you know, when, when you talk about, um, these, uh, you know, solid tumors versus hematologic, uh, cancers.
Um, if I'm getting this right, I did a little,
Dr. Peter Kash: you are. You are.
Marc Beckman: my notes, obviously I'm studying, and then, and then you bring it back up to like, all of you just like rattled off a lot of, uh, cancers that seem to be very prevalent. I don't know if it's because, um, reaching this age in life where, uh, people have cancer or actually cancer is becoming, or these types of cancers are becoming more prevalent.
So I'm curious, like from a therapeutic perspective, where do you think the, the sweet spot ultimately is? Is it targeting solid tumor types of cancers? Is it targeting hematologic cancers or do you see something, are you pointing out with your comments just now? Uh, a whole different angle to all of this.
And that's what target immune and eye oncology is, are, are focused on like a whole different approach.
Dr. Peter Kash: right. No, it, it, no, there are others with similar approaches and, and, and I hope that they all succeed as well. Um, really, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's what makes this industry so special. Um, everyone's pushing each other. Um. It, it's the idea of taking a cold tumor and making it hot. You know, uh, the best lectures I've ever heard in my life on cancer, they, it's almost like, uh, uh, I don't know.
Growing up, we both like Star Trek. Um, it's like the Klingon ships, uh, uh, cloak themselves and they can't see them. They cloak themselves. That's what cancer cells do. They cloak themselves. They, they, they, they try to hide in the most sophisticated ways, uh, with, with hundreds of millions of years of evolution.
And by the way, cancer's been around for thousands of years. The word cancer comes from a Greek word comes from, it was been around thousands of years ago. They, it was cancer. Uh, obviously people are living longer and, uh, uh, so it's more prevalent and you're able to diagnose it. And modern sciences, it's, what it's done in the last 100 years is fascinating.
But I believe that it's the idea of of of finding these cloaked, uh, uh, cling on cancer cells and some of them, not even part of the mass. Some of them might be single cell. So God forbid a woman gets breast cancer and thank God chemotherapy and radiation helps, and then things are great, and then two or three years later, the cancer comes back because a single cell was floating in the circulatory system.
Uh, it wasn't attached to the mass, it wasn't killed, and it becomes resistant to that type of chemotherapy. So, so I believe that as we are able to, uh, through diagnosis and through these fascinating therapeutics, several of them, you can uncloak, uncloak the cancer cells and allow these amazing medical miracles that scientists work on.
By the way, mark an average of 15 to 20 years to get these drugs approved from the time of the bench science an idea.
Marc Beckman: you're saying currently,
Dr. Peter Kash: Currently, currently it's about 15 to 20 years to get a drug approved from the beginning of the idea. And you are correct, it can cost, you know, on average 300 million plus. Uh, upwards of a billion, uh, uh, but now because of ai, we're shortening that significantly.
Um, so I believe is the idea of taking the, these cold tumors, turning them hot, lighting them up like a Christmas tree and, and allowing, uh, these, uh, uh, different modalities to come in. And now this thing, uh, and coming in and, and by the way, not like traditional chemotherapy where it, it, it's very toxic.
I'm talking about a, a, a much less toxic environment, uh, to go after these, uh, diseases. Um, and, and by the way, what's also fascinating now is that it's, it's global. Uh, you have Chinese scientists working with American scientists, American scientists, working with scientists in sw, Sweden and Finland. I just came back, uh, from Abu dbe.
The, the Middle East is blossoming with brilliant scientists and tremendous capital. Uh, and, and this whole global ecosystem is coming together that, that. I, I'm, I'm very bullish on humanity.
Marc Beckman: So Hu humankind before government and politics before policy.
Dr. Peter Kash: Uh, uh, uh, uh, when you have a mother or grandmother, a sister with ovarian cancer, everything go, any barriers? Uh, go away. You have a child with pediatric GBM or pediatric osteosarcoma, uh, bone cancer, all those barriers go away and everybody works together.
Marc Beckman: Peter, staying on the AI track for a minute, is it true that artificial intelligence is almost at the point now, you might not be aware of this, so forgive me, but I gotta ask you like, is it true that AI is now at the point where it will be able to predict cancer cells coming, like cancer cells are on the way?
Dr. Peter Kash: I, I, I, when, I'm never embarrassed when I don't know something, especially when you're at.
Marc Beckman: Yeah. I'm sorry to put that out there, but it's, I read this recently and it was,
Dr. Peter Kash: say, I'll get back to you on that one. Um, I, I could tell you that, that, that, that ai Right, right, right, right. Now, um, first of all, you gotta remember with ai, um, um, it, it, it, it's not just, uh, uh, mathematicians and, and computer scientists and physicists and chemists and biologists individually, they're all working together today.
Um, uh, uh, the big, the best predictor you have today for cancer. 'cause cancer is somewhat genetic, as we all know. It's somewhat environmental as we all know. And diagnosis, I could tell you right now, uh, this week I took a, a gene mapping test myself, a diagnosis. Um, I, I, I took just by taking a, a swab of my buccal mucosal, uh, in my cheek, uh, to get a gene mapping.
Um, so I'm a huge believer that as they're coming out with more and more markers, biological markers. Um, it helps. It, it does. To answer your question, it does help predict not just the cancer, but Mark, how aggressive that cancer will be. There's a test, I believe it's called the 4K test, and it's a test, uh, to determine whether or not pro your prostate cancer that you may or may not get.
But if you do get it, how aggressive it will be.
Marc Beckman: Wow, that's available now.
Dr. Peter Kash: it's available now,
Marc Beckman: Wow. Peter, what's the cost on this though? Like when you talk about the gene, you said you took a gene mapping test yourself with just at
Dr. Peter Kash: hundred. It cost me two. Well, it was a gift of my wife. Uh, it, it cost $250.
Marc Beckman: so anybody could do that.
Dr. Peter Kash: And anybody?
Marc Beckman: So is that something you would suggest the audience does?
Dr. Peter Kash: Oh, yeah. First of all, it, think about it, in the 1960s we were putting maps of the United States on our wall, you know, uh, uh, uh, uh, besides Farrah Faucet and, uh, you know, Tommy Aje, uh, from the New York
Marc Beckman: I love all these like great seventies references. We're gonna get into, um, Suzanne Summers in a minute.
Dr. Peter Kash: Oh, oh, oh, forget about it. Um, uh, the growing up in the sixties, seventies and eighties, uh, for millennials and Gen Z that are out there, those were the best years, the best decades.
Marc Beckman: I agree. I totally agree.
Dr. Peter Kash: from the eighties, the music from the eighties, nothing could compare nothing.
Marc Beckman: I completely agree. I'm having a big, by the way, I'm having a big Michael Jackson moment right now. So
Dr. Peter Kash: yeah, yeah.
Marc Beckman: we are the world nonstop in my head.
Dr. Peter Kash: Exactly. Exactly. And, and, um, by the way, look what we did collectively with that, with, with the concept of, of what was going on in Africa at the time, all these musicians came together just beautiful. But, but, um, uh, I lost my train of thought for a second.
Marc Beckman: Well, I was, I was asking you like, whether or not the audience should take, should
Dr. Peter Kash: oh, yeah, yeah. A hundred percent. Oh, yeah.
Marc Beckman: and if so, why? Like, what, what's the, how does it work?
Dr. Peter Kash: Yeah. It, it, it's, it's a no brainer for a few hundred dollars. To have a first, a map of your genes. Um, and it, it's like, uh, it, it's fascinating. It, it's
Marc Beckman: Where do they go though? Where do, where do they go to get the, where do they go to do
Dr. Peter Kash: go online. Yeah. These things are online. Uh, uh, uh, I, not off the top of my head, I'll get back to you on that.
Uh, uh, the name of the one that, that I just took, uh, I have it in my kitchen. Uh, but, but they, they're common. They're commonalities. Um, uh, by the way, let your doctor know and your doctor will recommend one as well. Your health
Marc Beckman: And what could they discover, like for if they do a gene mapping, what? What could be uncovered?
Dr. Peter Kash: Well, first of all, you can see if anything's over expressed. Like, is there, um, uh, uh, propensity for, for this disease? That disease, um, uh, it doesn't make you, you, you, you, you, uh, necessarily, uh, uh, freak out when you like certain, certain. I, I, by the way, I just got a full, uh, body, um, M-R-A-M-R-I-A full body, uh, body imaging, uh, that, that was recommended just to get a baseline, just to get a baseline.
And that was a few thousand dollars. But the idea is to get a baseline. But what I do recommend now, so I don't forget, is that every, everyone in your audience, uh, in their forties, they have to go for a colonoscopy. You used to be 49. I think it's a little bit younger now, if there's history of, of, of colon cancer, you gotta go in your thirties.
Uh, you're living in Florida, California, Arizona, twice a year now, once a year to a dermatologist. Otherwise you've gotta go a minimum of once a year and get a full, a full body, uh, uh, uh, dermatological exam. Uh, uh, you have all this diagnosis tools available to, to you, and it's amazing. I speak to people and they haven't been to doctors for 3, 5, 7 years, uh, just to get a baseline.
Uh, so that is extremely important.
Marc Beckman: Peter, I wanna talk to you. So, so it's kind of interesting because, uh, politics seems to get. In the way of issues that shouldn't be political over and over and over again. So, like, by way of example, I don't think fighting Fentanyl deserves a red or a Blue Jersey Republican or Democrat, and something you keep, A theme that keeps coming up is this concept of global collaboration within the science community for the sake of humanity.
But then there are certain regulations, um, po you know, different policies from country to country, um, different levels of patient access models, uh, from nation to nation. Do you feel like perhaps the, um, United Nations or some sort of uh, an, an international group should come together to, uh, create some level of uniformity and bypass a local state level, nation level, uh, policy, regulatory restrictions that could slow down advances in science?
Dr. Peter Kash: Well, okay, I've been waiting for this question for a couple of decades. I'm not exaggerating. Wait, wait till you hear my answer. Uh, I'm not in politics. I don't, not in that field of diplomacy. I'm in, I'm in biotech diplomacy. That is what I do. So I believe that that in, in the international arena, whether it's something political, something science, whoever's negotiating, uh, whoever are the negotiators, whether it's from China, Russia, America, wherever the Middle East.
In the room next door, you have a two-way window. And their young children or young grandchildren have to be in that room while they're negotiating in the room next door in a two-way mirror. The grandchildren of these people have to, that them playing with each other. And I will guarantee you that little tool that they can utilize to get to an agreement will happen much faster.
Marc Beckman: So what's the problem, Peter? Like, we're, where, like on a global scale, which nations are the most restrictive? Which nations are stymieing? Growth and innovation with regards to, let's say, cancer specifically, because that's your, that's your expertise. you know,
Dr. Peter Kash: tell you, China's in, in certain areas, in, in gene editing, in crispr, uh, uh, China is, uh, in, in, in, in something called, uh, uh, uh, ADCs. It's a, it's a, a whole class of, of, of unique drugs and cancer ADCs, they are with us or ahead of us. Right, right, right, right now. And I personally believe that if we allowed, uh, uh, greater collaboration, greater upside together, you know, my two, my two favorite expressions in business is less is more, less is more.
And in business and partnerships, just like in marriage, nothing has to be equal, but everything has to be equitable. And if you, I love that line.
Marc Beckman: Especially with marriage.
Dr. Peter Kash: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So, uh, week is my 35th year. Uh, so, so, yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, uh, yeah, no, she deserves a medal honor. Uh, so, uh, uh, is, is, is so to answer your question is we do have these international collaborations, right? Right now, the problem is in certain countries, um, you are hesitant to share patents, uh, uh, uh, and, and whatnot for fear of them taking it.
But I think if we start a little bit earlier on, at least in this one space. Of, of mutual collaboration. Scientists, not governments. They don't think like governments. I could tell you when I go to China, I've been there many times. Two of my books are published in China. And uh, when I get there, uh, behind closed doors, everyone's looking for the same thing.
How do we help patients? And that's what makes the scientific community so unique. Uh, I never go to a meeting and people are talking about their options in their stock equity plans. It's all about science with this group of people.
Marc Beckman: But let's talk about patents. I mean, like, you know, it's a funny situation because obviously this, show me in particular, I'm very capitalistic and I believe in the United States Patent and Trademark offices, uh, regulatory scheme. I think it's important for American innovation and, and for creators. But you know, we, it's no surprise.
I mean, everybody knows China tends to steal, um, you know, intellectual property from us, um, uh, corporations. Now you're saying they're right there with us as it relates to creating drug innovation specifically for cancer. Do you think it would be fair game for the United States companies if they, if a drug comes out of China and it is going to help an individual in America, uh, do you think American companies should steal those patents, that IP from China?
Dr. Peter Kash: Okay. So these are great questions. 'cause it puts me on the hotspot, which I like. I love, I love the pressure, you know, so the
Marc Beckman: It's a good question though, Chris, it's in the name of humanity, right? It's, it's on a smaller level. It's like that mother, um, you know, in a, in a situation where she can't, uh, provide for her children, goes into the supermarket and steals, you know, formula for her baby. Like that's really what I'm asking you.
Would, is it fair game for United States if, to your point, China's ahead of us with regards to, or equal or ahead of us and they come out, you know, at the end of the day with a, with a cure to some sort of a cancer and they wrap it up with their IP and make it so cost prohibitive that we can't access it.
Somebody could certainly rip it off and knock it off. Should we, is it ethical to rip for America to, to, to retaliate that way?
Dr. Peter Kash: So, so the answer to the question is, and, and, and, and, and instead of, uh, uh, uh, stealing it, I, I like the word, collaborate with it. Um, I, I, I think that if we do things more earlier stage, uh, with China, uh, we're all the same. Every human. What all related to the, uh, the, the, what was it?
The Seven Sisters of Eve, we all have the same mitochondria. That's why I love, uh, the mitochondria space. All of us, everyone on the planet, we're more or less the same. We're all related. Every one of us cousins, distant cousins, it's fascinating. Um, and I think that that, uh, uh, uh, we could break down the barriers of, of China, uh, the way that they're doing business.
Uh, I think that we could collaborate better, that it doesn't have to get to that stage that we have to steal from them, or they have to steal from us. Um, uh, I think that, that there's so much economics in this, so much economics, in this positive economics, in capitalistic, uh, uh, terms. That there's enough to go around.
There's enough to go around for everybody to get a, uh, a, a piece of the pie. Specifically, uh, Tommy's Pizza on Bedford Avenue.
Marc Beckman: Eh, I, all right, fair enough. So you don't wanna answer because you're doing business in China. I'll give you that. But then let's drive down to one of your earlier comments with regards to drug approvals in the United States. I mean, I, I had, we had a guest on here that is an expert with regards to rare and underserved diseases, and she argued that the FDA's procedures, their processes are overly onerous right now.
And as a result, we're putting American individuals with rare diseases, underserved diseases. That's not the case with cancer. Cancer is ubiquitous. Now we're putting them in a disadvantage. So bring it down to America. Is our government government system antiquated? Should we, should the, should the Trump administration do something right now to speed up the process of approval?
Dr. Peter Kash: Right. Well, first thing I know that President Trump is very interested in, in nailing cancer. I, I, I, he, he, he has a deep interest, uh, in, in that I, I had, uh, uh, uh, the, the, the honor of, of, uh, and it's the first administration of, of, of meeting President Trump at Maa Mar-a-Lago after a cancer. Uh, symposium, uh, in, in Palm Beach.
It was a, an incredible moment, uh, for me. And he, he asked specific questions about specific cancers. I was, uh, uh, really, really impressed, uh, with his knowledge. So this is number one. Uh, NNN num number two is, is often indications. The FDA has a special division for orphan indications. You can actually speed that up.
You don't have to do a phase three, uh, necessarily. So they got that right. They got that aspect right for orphan indications, especially for pediatric. Um, they speed that along. So the FDA has got the right. What I would love to see is a non-medical, non-medical, or non-direct FDA, uh, uh, uh, advisory board to work with the FDA in the industry to try to speed up, uh, the, the, these approval processes.
Uh, they, they, they do take a long time. They, they're a fortune of money. Um, and, and I do believe just like everything could be streamlined, but the FDA, um, has been, uh, uh, good with respect that we are the gold standard for the world. Uh, if something's approved here in America, it's generally approved everywhere.
And now the FDA is also allowing phase one and phase two, and even phase three studies overseas, which was something that they did not have in, in the past. So they're becoming significantly more user friendly. I would love to see it, see it speed up, uh, a little bit quicker, uh, uh, because taking 17 years to go from point A to point B, it's, it's ludicrous.
Um, a a also, uh, I, I must add, president Trump, I believe in two May of 2018, came out with the right to tri act. That,
Marc Beckman: Yes, I remember
Dr. Peter Kash: non, it's amazing, non-approved drugs, uh, can be, uh, that's experimental. It can be utilized, uh, for the first time. Uh, so that. Uh, why did that take 40 years? I have no idea.
Marc Beckman: So that's great, especially for patients. The, the, the right to try, just to hover on that for a second. I, I, I understand that a lot of women with different types of, uh, cancer have been really leveraging that people that are desperate have been using that Right to try act and, and
Dr. Peter Kash: my sister-in-law. Yeah, mark, I lost my sister-in-law three years ago to ovarian ca cancer. It's generally an 18 month process of diagnosis to, you know, whatever. Some people thank God longer and it would've been great if she could have been on, you know, experimental drugs and, and more easily, uh, uh, ovarian cancer is, is, I mean, if you asked me why do I want to achieve now, uh, in the second part of my life, uh, uh, at 60, almost 64 years of age is, is I want to nail pediatric GBM.
I want to nail ovarian cancer. And the one autoimmune thing I like to focus on is Crohn's disease. Uh, and if you can nail Crohn's, you can nail other autoimmune diseases. Those are the three things I personally highlight, uh, that I would like to see, uh, that I could have some small role in, uh, uh, as an achievement.
Um.
Marc Beckman: Peter, just before we get off this, uh, idea, like we're hovering over the government a little bit, it's kind of interesting because you're, I like how you're positioning, um, the FDA as the gold standard on an international level, and it's certainly, I feel protected by it. I mean, there's no doubt about it, but I also like your approach of, um, suggesting.
Uh, private sector, public sector, uh, collaboration of sorts. And I think President Trump is doing this in other business sectors. I personally went to the White House and participated in the White House Crypto Summit, where President Trump assembled, um, his, uh, executive team, his cabinet members, all the best.
And, and then a lot of individuals from the private sector that understood how crypto can impact financial services. In particular, we're seeing this with artificial intelligence too. Has he, has he announced anything? Is there some sort of a formation where, where the, um, private sector is going to work with the FDA to maybe find solutions to speed up the process of approval to, uh, move America forward?
Because there's gonna be a lot of advances. Like this is another example where technology is gonna push innovation, but our legislation is gonna slow down access to these drugs. So have you heard of anything like this? Public private participation?
Dr. Peter Kash: not, not specifically. Uh, uh, I'm, I'm sure it, it is done in, in, in, in private meetings and, and whatnot. But, uh, it's a very simple thing. You a lot of FDA officials, after they leave the FDA. They go into industry, they become chairmans of companies. They become on the board of directors of companies, utilize those people now that they had the medical, the government, the science experience, and now they're in the capitalistic industry, uh, uh, uh, role let them come back because they already have, um, they already have a, a, a, a respect, mutual respect that they were in the FDA, but now they're in industry and maybe even those people can be part of that advisory board and forming now the current FDA officials because now they're on the other side of the train tracks, if fact I use that analogy.
Um, but we have to do something, uh, to speed up the, uh, the process
Marc Beckman: So, so the last administration, like Biden was very vocal. I think his son, uh, Bo Biden passed away of cancer, if I'm correct. And,
Dr. Peter Kash: specifically brain cancer.
Marc Beckman: uh, and, and he was very, very vocal about, we're gonna cure cancer, we're gonna cure cancer. I know people looked at him from, you know, a political perspective. Some people on, on the right, thought he was acting crazy.
But he did put something together with that started to push this public and private sector participation called the Bo Biden Cancer Moonshot Initiative. Are, are you familiar with that?
Dr. Peter Kash: Y yeah, I'm indirectly involved. Yes.
Marc Beckman: What, what is it exactly?
Dr. Peter Kash: Well, it, it's going after these moonshots, these, um, you know, just like a moonshot, just like, uh, uh, JFK, uh, said in 10 years we're gonna get to the moon. And, and, uh, president Biden had this, you know, belief that we can go after these moonshots, uh, uh, for brain cancer and, and Alzheimer's.
And I work with a, a, a group of, uh, doctors and scientists and business people, high profile indu, industrialists going after certain moonshots, including diabetes. I, I mean, I mean diabetes, I, I lost my mother to diabetes. Um, it was tragic, absolutely tragic that in this day, in this day of age, um, uh, so, so, uh, yes, when, when you can get the president and, and President Trump has a tremendous, uh, influence today.
Tremendous. Where he can form a, a, a, an industry, uh, uh, with the FDA advisory group, uh, to go after maybe some of these moonshots to speed up the process a little bit. It, it's amazing what they could accomplish relatively quickly, in my opinion. It doesn't have to be a long, uh, bureaucracy per.
Marc Beckman: It seems like his appointment, uh, this new guy running the FDA seems like he also has a, a mindset similar to you where it's, you know, let's unlock American ingenuity so that we can continue leading as it relates to innovation in the drug, in the pharmaceutical, in the pharmaceutical sector. Um, it seems like he feels that the FDA needs to stay current as it relates to its procedures and its policies, and realizes that a lot of innovation is coming through new technology like ai.
Do you like the new guy that's, uh,
Dr. Peter Kash: Yeah, the new FDA guy is amazing. It's refreshing. It's great. And I'll add one other thing, mark, if we can get this a small tangent, if that's okay. Um, we have to revamp our education system. Uh, my doctorate is in education. Uh, and, and, and if you look at what South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, China, Finland, Sweden, uh, just to name a few countries, they are blowing the doors off us in.
High school, uh, mathematics, science, physics. We, we have to, uh, uh, ramp up our, um, our education system that our students are learning, uh, ai, they're learning basic physics, they're learning basic chemistry. They're learning things that collectively together, uh, our future. 'cause, you know, we are the, we're in the twilights of our careers and whatnot that we're able to compete against, uh, China and India.
India is the, is is amazing in the pharmaceutical space. Amazing. Um, and, and we have to be competitive. And the way we do that is through education. And I think that, uh, we we're not as competitive in the, in the math and sciences in the high school, uh, uh, uh, uh, realm.
Marc Beckman: Well, that's an understatement. In fact, like I was looking at some of the statistics recently coming out of Illinois in just math and, and English, and it's a, in the public school, um, realm specifically, and it's a debacle. I mean, American young students in high school are failing. They don't have the same level of knowledge that our generation did as it relates to, um, both English and math.
And, and it is just data. You could just look at the data. It's, this isn't like a, like a, a bias perspective because we're in the same generation. I mean, it's just a fact. So what do you call, what do you think caused this, um, deficit in, in American education?
Dr. Peter Kash: I, I, I'll tell you, mark, uh, uh, uh, I, I, I was involved with pencil. It's a, a, a a a non-for-profit in the city where we become a principal of the day for an inner city school. And I was a principal today of a, of a elementary school in the Bronx. Even with all the problems they have in the, in the social economic aspect, it was the number one school in America for chess.
Their chess team was number one. It's not a function of money, it's a function of. Rewarding the teachers in a meritocracy, which we don't do here. Uh, we spend double to triple, double to triple that of any student of those seven countries I just mentioned that are blowing the doors of us. When you look at, uh, uh, 10th grade and 12th grade mathematics and science, they're blowing the doors of us and we are spending double to triple the amount of money than they are.
So it has to do with the teaching methodologies. It has to do with the way that we're stimulating our children, uh, home environment. Um, I love the fact, uh, uh, of the idea of offering, uh, inner city, uh, uh, students the ability to go to charter private schools if the public schools are failing. Um, I think that would help out tremendously.
I love competition. Uh, you know, uh, I have a Ted Talk.
on social cap capitalism and, and, uh, I, I love competition. It's healthy, uh, in sports and in business and in education.
Marc Beckman: I, I think what we're gonna do for those, uh, for the audience that is listening, we're gonna, we'll, we'll put links to your TED Talk and your two books in the notes, um, on YouTube so they could just access the links and buy the books and listen to the TED Talk. But just going back to what you're talking about, um, Linda McMahon is the, she's running the United States Department of Education right now and she's talking about, um, basically having the DOE cut at the federal level to put more power.
She's not talking about cutting budgets, she's talking about cutting the bureaucracy at the federal level to put more power back into the state, the local level. Do you like that philosophy? Do you think that, for example, me in New York City and my family require a different type of approach to education than someone watching the show in a, uh, rural community in the country?
Dr. Peter Kash: mark. I don't like the idea. I love the idea. Love it. Because it creates natural competition. If one state. Is gonna put the resources to math and sciences, uh, and ai. So their, the children have a job in the future robotics, and another one puts it, I'm not saying you don't have a little bit of both, but the other one emphasizes the arts or whatever, the liberal arts, um, and you need a combination of both.
Um, uh, uh, uh, then those states will be losing their citizens to the other states that is helping the next, uh, generation of their children, and they will have to then improve their educational standards. So I believe if you do get it back to the States, it's, it's economics 1 0 1, that each state will have to be competitive in order to keep, uh, their, their population base in order to raise taxes, to pay for all the employees that are there and all the pensions.
So I think it's a, it's gonna be a great solution, uh, a, a a part of the solution to the education problem that, uh, we have here and, and the students are brilliant. When I was in these. City, uh, schools, they had the same thirst of knowledge as anywhere. And I was teaching at, at ivy League schools and, and around the globe.
Uh, our children, uh, in America, uh, has as great as potential as anywhere else. We just have to give them the tools to get there, in my opinion. And, and Mark, if, if I may make one plug, and I apologize so I don't forget, is you mentioned my book. I, uh, one of my new books is called Take Two Tablets, uh, medicine from the Bible.
It's an Italian Chinese English Hebrew, uh, uh, it just came out last week in, in Spanish. And what I'm doing with the Spanish book, I went to Spain to do a book signing a hundred percent of the proceeds. Not 99, not a hundred percent. I'm going to every Spanish speaking country around the world. And we are donating a hundred percent of the proceeds to buy PlayStations for Spanish speaking children with this book, uh, who are, who have ca uh, uh, Spanish speaking children that are undergoing chemotherapy.
For pediatric cancers, whether it be GBM or Leukemia, so they could play with each other while getting their chemotherapy treatments. And um, I'm, I'm scheduled to go to, uh, Argentina, Panama, Costa Rica, oray, um, uh, I hope to get to Columbia. Uh, uh, it's gonna be beautiful. So that is the social impact project for the.
Marc Beckman: That's impressive. I love that, Peter. Congratulations with that. So a question when we talk about drug, the creation of new drugs costing so much money, um, I'm curious what you think about this idea. We had a guest recently on the show who's also in the pharmaceutical space and he feels that. He can get, um, uh, accelerate innovation and then also get the end product to the consumers in a more affordable way.
He was focused on Parkinson's, specifically Peter, by partnering with the government on the manufacturing side. So creating a public private sector, um, moment where essentially I, I think the government might have done this in fact, with the COVID medications, right? Where essentially they're underwriting the cost of a Parkinson's drug so that the research can accelerate so that the manufacturing costs ultimately, uh, decrease and then it gets into the hands of the, um, end user in a more price efficient way.
What's your thought about that idea?
Dr. Peter Kash: Yeah, so obviously being in the industry, I, I, I don't dis disagree the, the, the course or exorbitant because 95 plus percent of drugs fail. People don't understand why do they charge X amount of dollars that that one drug that got approved? I could tell you that they had dozens, not a dozen, dozens of other drugs that failed somewhere along phase one, phase two, phase three, that billions was put into it.
So for the company to survive, the one drug that succeeds, they have to put a premium on these, on these, uh, drugs. So this, this is number one. But I love collaboration. And I think that, that with efficient government, non bureaucratic government officials, um, having such a partnership is a brilliant idea.
And by the way, it worked. It worked. Look what Richard Nixon did when he started the War on Cancer, and we started getting these huge amounts of funding in the NCI, the National Cancer Institute and the NIH. Look what we have done in 50 years. It's, it, it's unbelievable the advancements we have made in cancer and in other, uh, disease states.
Now, I believe over the next decade, we're gonna, doctors are gonna be calling into you, we're gonna get close to nailing Parkinson's. We'll get close to nailing Alzheimer's like never before. We will get close to nailing, uh, Crohn's ms. Um, and, and, and I'm extremely excited that if the, if we can figure out a non bureaucratic government agency to work directly, uh, with industry, I do believe that we can cut a lot of these costs.
Yes.
Marc Beckman: Could it have a chilling effect on innovation though? Like, it, it, it seems to, like, for me the scary part is it kind of butts up against socialism and communism. If the government is so involved in the creation of these businesses, will it stymie, um, creativity with regards to r and d, uh, for new drugs?
Dr. Peter Kash: No, if you have some creative government people that say, remember, the government doesn't take any equity, but imagine if the government, and they already have this in certain states, imagine the government coming out with, Hey, we just helped you with this drug. Um, for all the founders and an investors in the company, uh, uh, uh, instead.
Charging you a 20% long-term capital gains tax. If you reinvest it in that state into either a biotech, uh, a new startup or a tech startup, uh, it's tax free, but you have whatever you are investing in that company, uh, uh, imagine the will, our economy will be on steroids. Mark, imagine if there's an incentive that when you get a big winner, uh, that you recirculate that capital to new startups and not just necessarily in the biotech space, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, spread that out.
It, it, it'd be insane what it would do to stimulate the economy.
Marc Beckman: So it's kind of interesting you're making me think a little bit about, um, the government officials and whether or not they're. Uh, capable of understanding your world, of understanding medicine, science, and, and illnesses. I went to a, a dinner recently in Washington DC with RFK and Rand Paul was there. And Rand was, as you know, he has a medical background.
He's a doctor and he was very vocal about how important preventative care is as well. How we need to think from the start before people are sick all the way through the end. Um, do you think the government is thinking the right way if RFK starts to initiate these preventative measures unlike, you know, a way that we've ever seen before?
I think he's taking out red diet out foods now and people are like upset about that and he is trying to see whether or not, um, certain vaccines are causing A DHD and people are upset about that. But do you think this approach, uh, this more holistic approach, starting on the preventative side is a good place for the government to be poking around?
Dr. Peter Kash: Mark, you asked a second question that I've been trying to answer for two decades. you for answer. Thank you for asking that question.
Marc Beckman: Can I hit the trifecta?
Dr. Peter Kash: no, and we didn't, we didn't, we didn't, you didn't tell me what the questions were gonna be beforehand. So, so this, this is great. So let, let me, uh, an ounce. An ounce.
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, um, prophylactically Type two diabetes, no one needs to be type two diabetic in the world today. I stand corrected on the exact statistic. It see that every 30 seconds or every 60 seconds, it doesn't make a difference. There's an amputation somewhere in the world due to type two diabetes every 30 to 60 seconds.
There is no need for that. So 100%. If, if the government created incentive, imagine this Mark. Imagine if the government gave an incentive today for everyone that is clinically obese. Okay. Uh, and, and, and, you know, was speaking freely. My mother was, was very overweight later in her life and, and created an incentive that, that a, if your doctor says that you have to get your weight down to X and your cholesterol down to, to, to, to x minus, and you achieve that at the end of the year or the end of 18 months, the government, the government gives you, I'm making this up, but this is an idea the government gives, gives you two free tickets to Hawaii, by the way.
That's, uh, $3,000. We will, the government will save. Uh, I think the highest expenditure for Medicaid is in the last two years of someone's life, uh, uh, uh, of suffering from deli, uh, debilitating disease like diabetes or like fatty liver. Uh uh. And wanna imagine if we created an incentive plan for companies and individuals that if they can get down to that weight, to that, uh, prophylactic medical, um, uh, uh, baseline, that you create an incentive for them.
Literally, here's two tickets to Hawaii. Here's three tickets to Disney. The government would save 95% of what they're spending by not offering these things prophylactically. And we have to treat them therapeutically somewhere down the line. Uh, mark, you remember in elementary school we had, uh, you had to do, try to do 10 chin ups, you had to climb a rope.
I don't even think they could do that today. I can't imagine the lawsuits potentially of climbing the rope to the top of the ceiling. Uh uh. I dunno if you
Marc Beckman: I do remember it. I, I hated it actually. The rope
Dr. Peter Kash: our hands were burning
Marc Beckman: killed your hands. Yeah, yeah.
Dr. Peter Kash: our hands were all red and burning
Marc Beckman: I'm, I'm, and I have a fear of heights. I hated the whole
Dr. Peter Kash: Yeah. And you have another 7-year-old holding the rope down there like, oh my god.
But, but, but we had certain standards and I believe that if we got to those prophylactic standards, I'd be all for it. Um, uh, uh, uh, my, my second book, it was, it's called Freedom from Disease, and it's based on insulin resistance. It's based on, uh, if you're, if you get to that insulin resistant even before type two, you have a 40% greater chance of breast cancer, double the chance of clinical depression, double the chance of Alzheimer's, uh, 40% greater chance of prostate cancer.
So, so obesity is, is, is a horrific, uh, uh, disease state. And we could prophylactically prevent that in pediatrics, by the way, by like a little bit like what, uh, uh, RFK is doing, um, and exercise.
Marc Beckman: Interesting. Peter, one more question and then we're gonna let you go. Um, you've given me a, a tremendous amount of time, but so we're seeing a trend here in Manhattan, sadly, where, um, there might be a block or a neighborhood where a lot of people are diagnosed with the same type of cancer. So, by way of example, down in Gramercy Park, all of a sudden we found, um, we knew a, a handful of women that were all diagnosed with glioblastoma right around the same time.
Do you think there's a connection between geography somehow and these, uh, you know, specific, uh, linking geography to a specific type of cancer?
Dr. Peter Kash: Yeah, I, I, I hate to say it, but, but, you know, people much smarter than me that I work with, uh, that are MDs and PhDs, they're both, I mean, uh, they sacrifice, you know, 16 years of their life. Um, they say the same thing that they're, that there can be, but you gotta look at the data. It's gotta, it can't be subjective.
It's gotta be objective. But let's face it, we, we, there's evidence that if you live near, uh, high wires that transmit, uh, you know, ne next to power stations, we all know this. Um, there's a higher propensity of cancer with that. If you lived in certain parts of Long Island where they used, uh, certain fertilizers back in the forties and fifties, um, there's gonna be a higher propensity of a different type of cancer.
Uh, so the answer unfortunately, unequivocally, is, is, is, is yes. That, that the geographical location can't play. Now, can you bring it down to a street? Um, the answer is scientifically yes, but you have to look at the data and, and, and it's gotta be double blinded data. And that's why I love the standards that America brings to the world.
I, I love our country. We have the most amazing country in the world. And, and people just slam on it. Uh, it's like Winston Churchill said, democracy is the worst form of government, but it's better than all the rest. With all our problems. Nothing comes close to the United States of America, nothing. And, and the world would be in dark ages without us, and, uh, the world appreciates us.
I went to Korea, uh, recently, mark with my wife and daughter, uh, in South, south, South Korea, obviously. And, and we went to the, uh, uh, the War Museum there. They honor our flag, the United States flag in ways that I don't see here since I've been in the Boy Scouts or C Cup Cup, Cub
Marc Beckman: They're cutting the flags down here.
Dr. Peter Kash: you know, and, and, uh,
we, we, with all our faults, with all our mistakes, nothing comes close to us.
Marc Beckman: Peter. So, um, I'm flattered that I was able to land. Two questions that have been on your mind for all of these decades. It means a lot. I just, I don't wanna let you go. I just wanna, um, give you another opportunity. Is there anything important that comes to mind that we didn't cover that you would like to share with the audience today?
Dr. Peter Kash: Um. Th there's, there's so many things I would love to share, but if I had one, one or two things, and thank you for giving me, uh, the opportunity. Uh, one thing as I, as I'm learning is that we we're talking about all these disease states. The one thing we didn't touch on is mental illness and depression.
And it's, it's off the charts in, in adolescents, it's off the charts. Uh, uh, when we were growing up, I don't think we knew about depression.
Marc Beckman: Correct.
Dr. Peter Kash: I mean, you know, we were outside. Our parents didn't know where we were. It, it was riding our bicycle without helmets. It was crazy. Uh, today I stand corrected on the statistics, so please correct me or psychologists out there.
Please forgive me, but I heard that 5% of college freshmen contemplate suicide. It's crazy.
Marc Beckman: Yeah. In markets like South Korea too, a lot of these like massive celebrities that are in K-Pop or kdr, they become so famous. They have a suicide epidemic too. And, and, um, I have to tell you that I, I read recently in the, in the United States, for the first time ever, young women in college, their trajectory of suicide has surpassed that of men, the percentage, uh, of women that are all of a sudden committing suicide.
So, I, I agree with you. I think mental health and, and wellness is a major issue.
Dr. Peter Kash: the, the one indicator that I found that is you can't debate the for education, uh, for future, uh, uh, uh, criminality of your children. Uh, the number one indicator that shows that, that, that if, if parents or partners, uh, have dinner together with their children, I, I stand correctly.
But that is the number one indicator to determine outcomes. It, it's crazy. It's that simple as a family. Uh, and I'm a little bit guilty of it also, we shutting down the iPhones and shutting off the TV and having. Family events. We're big. We're a big board family. We love playing games, uh, whether it be Monopoly or uh, risk or whatever we're, we're, we're playing is having family time.
And, and I really believe it comes down to that, you know, is, is how much time are we spending? Um, uh, and so, so that's one thing I wanted to share is a way of trying to reduce the, um, the depression and mental illness and stress that this next generation has. Uh, because it is, you are correct, mark. It's, it's, it's, it's a global issue and we have to face it.
Um, the, the other thing I would share is since you're being so kind, is, uh, my oldest son Jar, uh, uh, co-produced a movie called Tatami. that we had a chance to see the opening of it. And today, actually, today it's, it's National National Release, uh, Tatami is a story about an Iranian athlete, uh, a a female athlete that had to shake hands or fight an Israeli athlete.
And it's based on a true story that happened in 2019. And the Iranian, uh, judo, uh, person could not go back to Iran because the d the death threats because he shook hands with him. And it's crazy that it opened the same week of this, uh, war with Iran. It's crazy. The, the coincidence. So that is a a BA, a movie that, that, that people will love if you'd like a thriller.
Uh, it's empowering for, for, uh, women. Uh, great, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, directors, a co between a male and female, co co-director, the acting's amazing. So I'd recommend everybody to go see Tatami, uh, if you'd like a, a great thriller that has to do with sports and women empowerment.
Marc Beckman: Peter, your, your son produced that with the, uh, producers of FAA too, right?
Dr. Peter Kash: Cor correct. So, so we have a small production company called Seymour Kash Productions after my father who passed and, uh, uh, he loved movies. His favorite movie was Gunga d uh, with Carrie Grant. Uh, if people know that movie from my generation or their parents, uh, generation
and he had a love for movies, he had a love for movies.
And, uh, uh, my son, besides having a high tech fund, a deep, uh, impact, uh, tech fund as you know him, uh, he also loves producing, uh, uh, movies. And, uh, uh, we're very fortunate that we were able, able to participate, uh, with, with, with the co-producers who are brilliant and they were very kind and very nice to allow us to participate.
Marc Beckman: Incredible family, Peter. So all of my guests come on the show and they end the same way. I, uh, lead with, uh, the beginning of a question, which incorporates the name of the show, some future day as you know. And then I have my guests finish the sentence. So are you game.
Dr. Peter Kash: Yeah, some future day.
Marc Beckman: No, I gotta start the sentence.
Dr. Peter Kash: you gotta start it. You gotta start it.
Marc Beckman: Yeah, yeah. I'm gonna lead you. You gotta finish my sentence. All right. So in some future day, the pharmaceutical industry will radically change and help accelerate innovation and cures in cancer because,
Dr. Peter Kash: Of the global collective collaboration, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, with mutual scientists and industrialists and governments, uh, all aligned with each other.
Marc Beckman: so we're gonna tear down the walls and as humans come together as one entity in the name of science.
Dr. Peter Kash: Mark, I had a, a, an opportunity to meet, uh, uh, uh, uh, president Gorbachev at a charity event before he died. And, and it was a, i, I even have a picture with me and him, actually. Everybody was going over to him asking him for, giving him some geopolitical advice on Prish doca. And I swear this is a true story.
I went over to him and with his translator there with the mustache, I said, uh, president Gorbachev, if you'd like to hear a good joke. And, uh, he, he looked at me like, what? And, uh, he said Yes and through the translator. So I told him a very funny joke and he laughed. If, if, if Gorbachev could turn down, could break down, uh, uh, the Berlin wall, which allowed us to be semi where we are today, which could be better, uh, we could break down the scientific walls and have greater mutual collaboration with China.
I have no doubt.
Marc Beckman: Dr. Peter Kash. Thank you so much for joining me today on Some Future Day. It's really a pleasure.
Dr. Peter Kash: Thank you, mark, and have an amazing weekend.