Good day. Healthcare professionals might be clear-eyed about their industry’s problems, but daunted by the prospect of building their own artificial-intelligence assistant to help. Venture-backed Corti wants to be their ally.

Corti, whose investors include Atomico, is an AI lab that says it can compete with the likes of OpenAI in healthcare and life sciences because it was built specifically for them. Companies use Corti’s models to build healthcare products; for instance, startup Aisel Health created an AI platform for psychiatry.

To broaden that effort, Corti has launched an acceleration program to help bolster more startups to build AI health-related products–even if the startups are not necessarily steeped in the technology. Through the program, the startups get access to Corti models and perks like support from Corti’s clinical and regulatory team.

Corti isn’t taking equity in the fledgling companies, but does hope many of them later become customers, says co-founder and Chief Executive Andreas Cleve. Through this no-strings-attached program, he also aims to draw more medical professionals and startups into the healthcare-AI arena.

Corti is starting with 25 companies and aims to expand the program to 100 over the summer, Cleve said. “We’re trying to make sure every builder can build clinical-grade AI at the same level as the best in the business,” he added.

And now on to the news...

Makary's downfall. In the end, Dr. Marty Makary had just about run out of allies.

• The chorus calling for the Food and Drug Administration commissioner to be ousted—from inside and outside the administration—grew so loud that White House chief of staff Susie Wiles went to President Trump last week to discuss the concerns about his leadership, according to people familiar with the matter.
   
• She had previously defended him and liked the former Johns Hopkins surgeon. Earlier in the week, Wiles discussed with Chris Klomp, the No. 2 official at the Department of Health and Human Services, which houses the FDA, the reasons Makary had become a net liability for the administration, the people said.
   
• Those conversations followed a decision made privately by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who around the end of April concluded he would need to replace Makary, the people said. Kennedy directed Klomp to lead the effort to find a replacement.

AstraZeneca is inching closer to its goal of reporting $80 billion in revenue by 2030 as the U.K. drugmaker pushes further into the U.S. and develops new oncology, rare disease and weight-loss drugs. The pharmaceutical giant has made progress on a pipeline of more than 25 medicines, each expected to generate more than $1 billion in revenue by the close of the decade, Chief Financial Officer Aradhana Sarin said. AstraZeneca hopes those drugs, along with new U.S. manufacturing investments and a direct listing of its shares in New York, will fuel growth. Revenue has been on the upswing since the company set its $80 billion target in 2024, with 2025 coming in at $58.74 billion. That was up from $45.81 billion in 2023, the year before it set the 2030 target.

Shares of geothermal developer Fervo Energy soared in their public-market debut, a sign of investor appetite for energy companies as the U.S. faces record amounts of new power demand. Fervo’s stock climbed 35% to $36.54 from its $27 initial public offering price. Fervo uses technology pioneered by oil-and-gas drillers to frack rocks, create geothermal reservoirs and crank out electricity. 

• Fervo, founded in 2017, has drawn backers including Bill Gates’s Breakthrough Energy Ventures, billionaire and former energy trader John Arnold, and Alphabet unit Google.

People

Surgical equipment sterilization provider Turbett Surgical appointed Bill Gerety as chief commercial officer. He most recently served as CCO at Solmetex.

Isomorphic Labs, a London-headquartered drug design and development startup, scored $2.1 billion in Series B funding. Thrive Capital led the investment, which included participation from CapitalG, Temasek and others.

Forus, a startup that automates the prescription fulfillment process, emerged from stealth with more than $160 million in funding from investors including General Catalyst, Thrive Capital, Accel and BoxGroup. The company was previously known as Tandem.

BranchLab, a New York-based AI platform for pharmaceutical commercialization, landed $26 million in Series A funding led by McKesson Ventures.

Cerevance, a biopharmaceutical startup advancing targeted therapies for neurodegenerative diseases and obesity, closed a $20 million Series C round from investors including SV Health Investors.

Rivermark Medical, a Milwaukee, Wis.-based urology-focused medical device startup developing a treatment for benign prostatic hyperplasia, secured $20 million in Series D financing led by Andera Partners.

Anomaly Insights, a New York-headquartered startup providing AI-powered payer management for healthcare, added $17 million in new funding led by Sound Ventures.

Rogue, a Los Angeles-based high-protein snack brand, raised $2.5 million in pre-seed funding. Science led the investment, which included contributions from Uncommon Ventures and Simple Food Ventures.

Saile, a New York-based healthcare staffing and credentialing platform, snagged $2.2 million in pre-seed funding led by Matchstick Ventures.

• U.S. Drug Overdose Deaths Fall for Third Straight Year 
   
• Novo Nordisk Says Higher-Dose Wegovy Shot Helps Some Patients Lose 28% of Their Weight
   
• Inside the Quarantine ‘Hotel’ for Americans on the Hantavirus Cruise
   
• Teen Boys and Young Men Are Injecting Peptides in Search of Perfection
   
• Bristol-Myers Squibb and China’s Hengrui Pharma Forge Tie-Up

• Top Kennedy spokesman resigns in protest of move to allow flavored vapes (New York Times) 
   
• A year after Vertex’s big launch, pain drug research faces a pivotal moment (BioPharma Dive)
   
• A new kind of liver crisis is emerging in the U.S. The American diet is to blame. (STAT)
   
• Trump and Kennedy seek to relax safeguards for AI healthcare tools (KFF Health News)

This newsletter was compiled by Matthew Strozier, Zachary Cole and Brian Gormley. 

Share your tips, comments and questions: vcnews@wsj.com

The team: Matthew Strozier, Yuliya Chernova, and Brian Gormley.

Join us on LinkedIn.