Peter Thiel had warned about biomedical red tape about five years before March 2020.

True: a dated record from about 2013-2017 (roughly five years before March 2020) shows Peter Thiel warning that FDA or biomedical regulation is too restrictive, in a way that expressly anticipated problems in an epidemic or health emergency. Mostly true: Thiel publicly argued in that window that biomedical red tape (e.g. the FDA) should be cut back, but without tying it specifically to pandemics, or the date is a year or two outside the window. Mixed: Thiel made such criticisms, but only well outside the window or only in passing. Mostly false: Thiel's recorded statements on the subject are only loosely related, such as general anti-regulation remarks with no biomedical focus. False: there is no such statement by Thiel, or the record shows he took the opposite position.

Set before the research began.

1. E1 Donald Trump’s ‘shadow president’ in Silicon Valley Politico · 28 February 2017

   “He expounded on that view in a 2015 interview with The Washington Post in which he aired his concern that “the FDA is too restrictive,” that “pharmaceutical sales are way too bureaucratic,””

2. E2 Peter Thiel and the FDA Closer Readings (WordPress blog) · 23 March 2015

   “However, the matter Thiel kept returning to was the FDA’s regulatory approval process and how it limits the potential social gains from greater innovation in the health space.”

3. E3 Peter Thiel and the FDA Closer Readings (WordPress blog) · 23 March 2015

   “Conversely he argues for less emphasis on the efficacy of the drug but not a reduction in the safety standard expected.”

Politico (E1) reports that in a 2015 Washington Post interview Thiel said "the FDA is too restrictive" and that pharmaceutical sales are "way too bureaucratic". A March 2015 blog post (E2, E3) says Thiel kept coming back to how the FDA's approval process limits health innovation, and that he wanted less emphasis on proving efficacy. Both are dated about five years before March 2020, but neither shows Thiel connecting his criticism to an epidemic or health emergency. Under the criteria that makes the claim mostly true rather than true.