Moving in to our new Consilium office in London in January 2022 seems like a distant memory. Working on the office seating plan for our wonderful staff following the COVID era of remote working seemed like a gift then and one I now, gratefully, take for granted. What I really enjoyed recently, and it lived up to everything I was excited for, was our staff Christmas party. To be out celebrating together, after two Christmases with on screen gatherings, was enormous fun amongst a group of brilliant people I love spending time with.
Thankfully, that COVID era seems to have blown over (though I am keeping fingers crossed) I was reminded of it recently at the launch of Dame Kate Bingham’s book The Long Shot, the inside story of her time as head of the UK Vaccine Taskforce during the height of COVID panic (run out and buy it as all proceeds go to charity and it’s a great read and a superb stocking filler).
The global healthcare market environment, against an ongoing tumultuous global political backdrop and exacerbated by high inflation and cost of capital, has been bleak and headwinds across the healthcare sector have impacted valuations. But we feel the green shoots we’ve seen in recent weeks are well on their way to becoming young stalks. With recent market rallies and breakthroughs for patients in areas such as Alzheimer’s, we see a very promising alchemy brewing, with more good news on the horizon.
We are pleased to represent some of the most innovative and high growth companies in the world where we all know it’s not just the tech and the products/pipeline that matters, it’s the management teams and their track records for success that drive the most successful outcomes.
Our international client base and new business pipeline tellingly maps the global market’s activity in our space and we’ve progressed from feeling cautious in H2 2022 to feeling almost overwhelmed (in a good way) with new business in Q4 and the lead up to the Christmas holiday period, which is a luxury problem to have! Over recent months we’ve started working with a great group of new clients including LifeArc, Autolus, Essential Pharma, Vectura Fertin Pharma, Nogra Pharmaceuticals, Domain Therapeutics, GHO Capital, Genespire and Xeltis. We’ve also been pleased to continue hiring excellent people such as our new Partner, Tracy Cheung and are delighted that Sue Stuart will be returning to the firm in January.
Whilst the IPO market still looks tough there are plenty of reasons to be cheerful including the vast amount of money flowing through key healthcare hubs where we mainly spend our time, particularly Europe and the US. The fundraising charts seem to be resilient with some excellent opportunistic issuances returning. With large pharma and PE trends towards M&A looking set to stay buoyant, investors look to be in a neat position for accessing high quality opportunities. We expect that when the IPO market returns, companies will be in a more mature position and better prepared to create value for shareholders and enjoy public company life.
As the healthcare year in Europe draws nicely to a close with a buoyant and well attended ‘mini-JPMorgan week in London’ cornered largely by Jefferies (with surrounding events held by all), we are cautiously optimistic. We see 2023 starting with necessary caution in Q1 but brimming with innovation across our geographies, more transactions and plenty of attention for our sector.
Consilium will be on the ground in San Francisco in January, as always, and the team looks forward to meeting clients there. If you are looking for a meeting, please contact info@consilium-comms.com.
We now enter our 10th calendar year at Consilium feeling honoured to support such a transformative industry working towards improving, curing and saving the lives of patients all over the world and very proud and lucky to be in growth mode despite the current global economic environment. Above all, we are so proud of the trust our clients put in us. I look forward to seeing everyone soon and to involving you all in our 10th anniversary celebrations at events throughout the year.
As always, a massive thank you to our clients for your loyalty and to the Consilium team including our invaluable operations team for your hard work and care for each other.
From all of us at Consilium, we wish you a wonderful holiday season and happy new year!
