The Democratic Republic of the Congo is burning. Again.
Less than two weeks after the Africa Center for Disease Control flagged the new Ebola outbreak, the body count hit 220. Infection numbers have climbed past 1,000. The disease has crossed borders, reaching Uganda. It is moving fast. Tedros Adhanom Giebreyesus, the WHO chief, said public health workers are “playing catch-up” Monday. They are losing this round. The International Rescue Committee thinks this outbreak might dwarf the 2018–2020 crisis that killed more than 2,200 people.
Here is the problem: We have vaccines. But they don’t work here.
The approved shots target Ebola-Zaire. This is Bundibugyo. There is no treatment. No approved vaccine. It has a 32% death rate. That tracks with smallpox before eradication. Oxford scientists are working on something. Trials are months away. Too late for the current victims.
Governments are scrambling. The U.S. CDC is recruiting staff. Three airports are set for screenings. Houston, D.C.’s Dul, and Atlanta. They check passengers from the Congo, Uganda, and South Sudan. South Sudan has zero cases but is watching closely. Forbes tracks the spread in real-time.
The AI Shadow
Forbes’ Midas List 2016 came out this year. It ranks the top 100 VCs. Usually healthcare plays a part. This year? Almost entirely AI. The tech boom pushed health investors off the podium. 25 newcomers rode AI valuations into the list. Healthcare struggled to keep its head above water.
Only one person made it with a primarily health-related deal. Annie Lamont. Co-founder of Oak Investment Partners. Her big win: Devoted Health. Valued at more than $14 million.
Zhen Zhang of Gaorong Capital had some biotech hits. ProfoundBio went to Genmab for $1.8B in 2014. Alto Neuroscience went public with a $700M+ cap.
Others slipped through on non-health wins but hold big healthcare bets. Hemant Taneja of General Catalyst backed Anthropic, which now makes AI for healthcare. Vinod Khosla is ranked #1. Why? Backing OpenAI early. But he also leads deals like Loop Health and Zocdoc. Neil Shen of HSG backed ByteDance. Their health arm does AI drug discovery and digital platforms. They even fund a Beijing “AI native” cancer hospital.
Commure’s $7 Billion Reality
Commure isn’t playing around. They hit a $7B valuation last week. Forbes CEO Tanay Tandon wants to fix healthcare administration. It costs the U.S. $1 trillion a year. Just to run the paperwork.
Commure is in Mountain View. They sell an AI scribe. It listens to patient visits. Fills the forms. They also handle revenue cycle management. That billing headache. Over 500 health systems use them. Tenet, HCA, the big players. Tandon says active revenue topped $200 million last year. Double the previous year. “If we are aggressive, we double again.”
The market for ambient scribing is $600M. Microsoft’s Nuance owns it. Abridge is next with a $5.3B value. Epic is joining the fray too. Competition drives prices down. Tandon expects M&A consolidation soon.
“My goal is to make the system profitable.”
It isn’t just about typing anymore. It’s about the money flow. Revenue cycle is where the payoff is.
The Big Purchase
Eli Lilly just dropped $4B on three vaccine startups. Yes. Billion. B.
Lilly is known for weight loss drugs. Mounjaro. Zepbound. Revenue hit $62B in 2025. A 45% jump. But now? Infectious disease. They bought Curevo. LimmaTech Biologics. And The Vaccine Company.
Curevo is building a shingles shot. It might challenge GSK’s dominant Shingrix. LimmaTech targets bacteria like Staphylococcus aureus. The Vaccine Company has an Epstein-Barr candidate in the pipeline. Daniel Skovronski, Lilly’s CSO, called it “preventive strategy at its source.” Treat the consequence. Prevent the disease. Better.
What else is happening?
Oura filed confidentially for IPO. Smart rings are hot. $11B valuation already.
In Utah, Doctronic AI recommended renewing 72% of prescriptions in five months. 28% flagged for doctors. Fast. Accurate enough for regulators.
Retatrutide. Another Lilly obesity drug. Weight loss nears bariatric surgery levels. Side effects exist. High drop-out rates. But the numbers are undeniable.
A covert group of biotechs ousted FDA Commissioner Marty Makary. Success story there.
Trump gets his annual physical at Walter Reed next month. He turns 80. The results? We may never know.
Chan Zuckerberg Initiative released an atlas. One billion predicted protein structures. Open source. It could change diagnosis forever. Or do nothing.
Forbes highlights Sarah Guo betting on pre-ChatGPT AI. Now she is top tier. Yasmin Razavi turned a $75M check into a $3B windfall. The winners win big. The losers get erased. The vaccine bet remains a gamble. Ebola spreads.
