Visitors to the J.P. Morgan 43rd Annual Healthcare Conference have for years been superstitious about the weather. San Francisco’s mercurial microclimate means the California sun is more often absent than not, and rain or fog are typically the order of the day. What did our tea-leaf readers, Senior Partner Amber Fennell, and Partner Tracy Cheung, make of a rare burst of January sunshine at this year’s conference?
This year’s conference, while upbeat, felt lighter and quieter than previous events, a sentiment which was reflected in thinner delegate numbers, though not in the eye-watering pricing still in evidence at San Francisco’s restaurants and watering holes. Participants seemed to agree that the quality of meetings was unaffected – and indeed probably higher than in busier years.
As always, there were deals to be done: roughly $18 billion of M&A printed out in the first few days of the conference. The headline grabber was Johnson & Johnson, with its acquisition of Intra-Cellular Therapeutics for $14.6 billion, one of the largest industry deals in recent memory and a strong buy-signal for CNS drug development. Meanwhile, Lilly acquired cancer drug startup Scorpion Therapeutics for a deal worth up to $2.5 billion and, not to be outdone, GSK joined in with a $1.15 billion acquisition of IDRx.
But while in previous years J.P. Morgan has been seen as the unofficial starting gun for US IPO season, this remained muted. Goldman Sachs’ CEO David Solomon commented to a separate audience of venture capitalists at an event in Palo Alto during the week that many tech companies are better remaining private, and clearly many up the coast in San Francisco were feeling this. The general consensus is that although markets are open, listing will continue to be tough in 2025 – at least in the first half of the year – and many smaller companies are rethinking the idea that IPO is the inevitable destination. Nevertheless, enough companies have confirmed their intention to list in the early weeks of the year to reassure.
Obesity and cardiometabolic continue to be the dish of the day for investors and deal-hungry executives, but while there’s no curbing the appetite, the discussion at J.P. Morgan and elsewhere has moved towards supporting healthy and sustainable weight loss, in contrast to the recent arms race on behalf of many large pharma companies to achieve the highest weight loss target possible. The focus on metabolic health, however, has become a key focus for biopharma companies, regardless of whether or not they have an obesity pipeline.
One of the highlights of this year’s J.P. Morgan conference was the Biotech CEO Sisterhood movement, an initiative championing the rise of the female biotech leader. This was in evidence across the city in a sea of cerise and fuchsia on the jackets, hats and badges of delegates, lifting the eye away from the standard regulation blue, black and grey.
Whatever the sentiment, J.P. Morgan is always a great way to start the year and we have returned with our contacts books bursting with business cards and our Waymo love fully cemented. Looking forward to seeing you all next year.
