Breaking: Eli Lilly CEO becomes latest to push back on Dario Amodei’s ludicrous, Elizabeth Holmes-like medical claims

Where is Nathan Fielder when you need him?

Moments after I posted my essay on why I couldn’t touch Anthropic’s IPO with a ten-foot pole, Anthropic’s CEO gave me (and everyone else) a reason to run away as fast as possible: a video tied to the IPO launch in which he made a bunch of overpromise about medicine that would have made Elizabeth Holmes blush.

As I have discussed before, this is not going to happen on anything remotely like that timeline. Cancer is more than one thing, and it will take more than a decade to eradicate it; the bit about curing mental illness (and some other things) that quickly is absolute fantasy.

The response from experts on X has been swift, and absolutely (and appropriately) brutal.

I was hardly the only one to get serious Elizabeth Holmes vibes. Here are four of my favorites:

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The fact is, the field is in no position to do what Dario says, on anything like the timeline that he discusses.

On the one hand, we don’t have the data:

@DarioAmodei. The data exists for<1% of biology. Likely AI will help get a few better drugs slightly faster&more efficiently in that time frame but honestly, especially with 5-8 years needed in the clinic, what you are saying is hyperbolic BS!","username":"drrichjlaw","name":"Rich Law","profile_image_url":"https://pbs.substack.com/profile_images/1900110328446304256/6K3koO_e_normal.jpg","date":"2026-11-11T15:25:56.000Z","photos":[],"quoted_tweet":{"full_text":"Anthropic CEO predicts cancer, Alzheimer's, heart disease, mental illness will be cured in less than 10 years \n\nACCELERATE","username":"ns123abc","name":"NIK","profile_image_url":"https://pbs.substack.com/profile_images/2048822563821035520/7nxCFEnk_normal.jpg","photos":[]},"reply_count":74,"retweet_count":51,"like_count":517,"impression_count":33456,"expanded_url":null,"video_url":null,"video_preview_media_key":null,"belowTheFold":true}" data-component-name="Twitter2ToDOM">

What Dario said about timelines just ain’t happening.

@megtirrell@DarioAmodeiFor the most recent 20 drugs approved, the mean time from 1st in human to fda approval was 14yrs. The median was 10. So unless these miracles drugs are are already in clinical testing or are very close to it, then the answer is a definite no. I do think there is a shot for ai…","username":"masterlongevity","name":"masterlongevity.","profile_image_url":"https://pbs.substack.com/profile_images/1484975789502185474/rwdsC-DR_normal.jpg","date":"2026-11-11T21:38:58.000Z","photos":[],"quoted_tweet":{},"reply_count":0,"retweet_count":2,"like_count":6,"impression_count":507,"expanded_url":null,"video_url":null,"video_preview_media_key":null,"belowTheFold":true}" data-component-name="Twitter2ToDOM">

As several researchers noted, we simply can’t expedite clinical trials — which are absolutely necessary — to the degree that would be required:

@megtirrell@DarioAmodeican someone send dario a drug dev gantt chart? ;) ...and just for context, i'm an AI bull, believe timelines will get a lot shorter, but we still have a process that has steps u aren't allowed to skip (like mouse experiments, manufacturing, fda interactions, and clinical","username":"docrodwong","name":"Rod Wong, MD","profile_image_url":"https://pbs.substack.com/profile_images/1900281177564409856/ihcFI6-d_normal.jpg","date":"2026-11-11T22:16:20.000Z","photos":[],"quoted_tweet":{},"reply_count":3,"retweet_count":1,"like_count":21,"impression_count":1261,"expanded_url":null,"video_url":null,"video_preview_media_key":null,"belowTheFold":true}" data-component-name="Twitter2ToDOM">@megtirrell@DarioAmodeiCEO of a precision oncology company here. Cured in under a decade? Clinical timelines alone make that very hard: a drug entering trials today reaches patients in the 2030s.\n\nWhat I do think is realistic: turning advanced cancer into a chronic disease people live with, like HIV.…","username":"KirchukNicolas","name":"Nicolas Kirchuk","profile_image_url":"https://pbs.substack.com/profile_images/2013082197385695232/xuLFqYYL_normal.jpg","date":"2026-11-12T01:41:40.000Z","photos":[],"quoted_tweet":{},"reply_count":0,"retweet_count":0,"like_count":3,"impression_count":178,"expanded_url":null,"video_url":null,"video_preview_media_key":null,"belowTheFold":true}" data-component-name="Twitter2ToDOM">

Practically anyone who works in the field knows what Dario said is bullshit.

@megtirrell@DarioAmodeiAs a life long Cancer Biologist in Pharma industry, I call this BS.","username":"madscientist_SD","name":"Stephen Davis","profile_image_url":"https://pbs.substack.com/profile_images/656130786517757953/QPBhkG-f_normal.jpg","date":"2026-11-11T21:51:01.000Z","photos":[],"quoted_tweet":{},"reply_count":0,"retweet_count":0,"like_count":6,"impression_count":182,"expanded_url":null,"video_url":null,"video_preview_media_key":null,"belowTheFold":true}" data-component-name="Twitter2ToDOM">

Some of the pushback even came from prominent medical researchers who I would characterize as pretty pro AI..

Here’s the Chairman annd CEO of Eli Lilly, Dave Ricks, critiquing Dario and giving a far more realistic view:

And here’s a professor of philosophy, stepping back to the larger context:

Letting this stuff slide is a mistake.

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The other part of the context, of course, is the IPO:

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Despite the widespread ridicule of Dario’s Elizabeth-Holmesian claims, I have not noticed a single article deconstructing them in the major media.

In failing to call Dario out on his latest, immediately pre-IPO bullshit — which is so egregious it should be investigated for securities fraud — the media is failing the American public.

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P.S. You might need a tiny bit of technical background in software development to follow the below, but Dilbert couldn’t have captured the situation better: