Self-Made Women | Shasqi Tackles Chemotherapy | Mars At Its Best

Plus: Coronavirus May Survive For 28 Days On Some Surfaces But Don’t Panic

Judy Faulkner, the CEO and founder of healthcare software company Epic Systems, moved up the ranks on this year’s Forbes Self-Made Women List, taking the number two spot, with a net worth of $5.5 billion. Alice Schwartz, the 94-year old cofounder of life sciences company Bio-Rad Laboratories, came in at #11 with a net worth of $2.2 billion. 

While self-made women may be making waves in the boardroom, the same does not hold true for the operating room, according to a new study. Female surgeons remain scarce, making up fewer than  25% of all surgeons. Forbes contributor Nina Shapiro reports that female surgeons are also more likely to perform less complex surgeries than their male counterparts. 

Any questions? Send me an email at kjennings@forbes.com.

Around 650,000 Americans will receive outpatient chemotherapy each year, according to the CDC, and for some of those patients, the side effects are so bad the chemotherapy has to stop. San Francisco-based biotech startup Shasqi aims to solve this problem with a new platform that could ensure direct targeting of tumors. In theory, the company’s therapeutic should be able to give patients higher doses of chemotherapy at the tumor site with fewer side effects. This month, Shasqi became the first of more than 300 healthcare startups funded by Mountain View-based Y Combinator to enter Phase 1 clinical trials.

Noteworthy

Eli Lilly halted its Covid-19 antibody trial over a safety concern, while Johnson & Johnson had to put its vaccine trial on pause following “unexplained illness.” 

Hedge fund billionaire Ray Dalio pledged $50 million for a new center for health justice at New York-Presbyeterian hospital to reduce disparities. 

Science skepticism has declined for the first time in three years, according to a 3M survey conducted during the coronavirus pandemic. 

Additional findings show Eli Lilly’s rheumatoid arthritis drug combined with remdesivir may improve benefits Covid-19 patients who need oxygen. 

Final results in Gilead Sciences’ remdesivir trial confirm it shortens length of Covid-19 cases but has small impact on death. 

Hospitalizations for heart attacks and strokes nearly doubled in the two days following the 2016 presidential election, new study finds. 

Across Forbes

• Are Sharks Being Killed For Coronavirus Vaccines?

• Mars Is At Its Best This Week Until 2052.

• Border Patrol Spent $2 Million On Google Maps For A Massive Surveillance Tool

• Why Are So Many Minks Dying Of Covid-19?

What Else We Are Reading

• FDA pushes back on Trump administration attempt to rebrand ‘emergency authorization’ (POLITICO)

• From a small town in North Carolina to big-city hospitals, how software infuses racism into U.S. health care (STAT)

• New England’s Forests Are Sick. They Need More Tree Doctors. (The New York Times)

Across Forbes