I am not making my statement based on a link. I am comfortable using my decades of experience of working in the Headquarters of a federal regulatory agency as background for that statement.
But as to your remark about biomarkers -- a novel MOA may well present novel biomarkers, something that would require a convincing scientific showing to the FDA, something that would take additional time, and something, in the context of a potential platform drug, worth investing in now for payoffs down the line.
Nothing this ambitious fits within your paint-by-numbers approach, since an entirely new picture is being painted. You really have misread Missling if you think he is an unimaginative incrementalist.