Life after JP Morgan Healthcare Conference: Life Sciences' Next Steps
The following article has been posted on
The Actionable Ideas Blog by
Julie Huang, President of
Kaimen Company.
In his January 11, 2010 article, Xcomony's Luke Timmerman calls the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference the "annual pilgrimage." As the 28th conference winds down, company executives, investors, and bankers pack up their bags and start heading home. It's been four days of back-to-back presentations in an overcrowded Westin St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco filled with dark suits. Executives used their presentation time to talk about strategies that will transform their companies to be bigger and stronger than before. Other companies used their presentation time to provide updates on marketing, cost-cutting, clinical, regulatory, or pipeline progress. Like every year, business development and company executives, institutional investors, and bankers from other firms circle the Westin St. Francis with day long meetings at adjacent hotels.
Recapping the Conference: Visit Twitter, Blogs, and other Traditional Media Outlets
There are multiple places to visit to recap the event. For instance, thousands of tweets were posted about this conference. You can follow along these tweets by visiting http://www.twitter.com/ under the "#JPM10". For those who are not familiar with Twitter, the hashtag "#" is a convention used by Twitterers to make it easy to group tweets and search for tweets on the same subject.
Good summaries and coverage were provided by Luke Timmerman from Xconomy, CNBC Correspondent Michael Huckman, Adam Feuerstein from TheStreet.com, Robert Weisman from The Boston Globe, Brian Gormly from The Wall Street Journal, InVivo Blog, and Genetic Engineering News.
Where's the Future of Small Molecule Drug Development in Pharmaceutical Companies?
A significant piece of news was the announcement that large multinationals like Pfizer and GSK plan to focus less on small molecules drug discovery for various reasons, one of which relates to intellectual property. Does this mean these pharmaceutical companies will outsource small molecule development? Or does it mean that pharma's interest in small molecule development is now waning after a few years of intense interest. It will be interesting to see how this news trickles through the industry and how it will influence discussions that small molecule companies are having with current and potential pharma partners.
Connection between M&A and the IPO Window
There have been fifty-eight S-1 filings from multiple industries since the middle of October 2009. With over 60 private companies presenting at the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference this year, it looks like private companies in this space are gearing up to access the capital markets this year. Yes, there's always a potential of privately-held companies getting acquired or locked up in deals before they ever go public. It is common for business development executives to scout S-1 listings for their next deal.
Since a limited number of deals were announced during the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference, perhaps more deals are coming? The Daily Deal thinks so. According to the Daily Deal, the top 10 pharmaceutical companies have cut $230 billion worth of M&A deals since 2007 and the Daily Deal anticipates an increase in Pharma M&A activity this year. See you at the next conference.
Upcoming Healthcare, Pharmaceutical, Biotech, and MedTech Banking Conferences (to be updated later with other events)
January 24-26 BioPartnering North America (Vancouver, Canada)
January 25-27 Jefferies Global Healthcare Services Conference (New York City)
February 8-9 12th Annual BIO CEO and Investor Conference (New York City)
February 8-10 UBS Global Healthcare Services Conference (New York City)
February 24-26 Lazard Capital Markets Medical Technology Conference (Snowbird, UT)
@2011 Kaimen Company.