If you have ever attended the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference and Biotech Showcase, you know how big it is. This is the 33rd Annual event from January 12-15 and is focused on the greatest developments in healthcare will bring more than 5,000 representatives of drug companies, investment bankers, venture capitalists, lawyers and scientists. Union Square will be teeming with energy and excitement. The JP Morgan conference is the biggest of the simultaneous events and is by invitation only at the St Francis Hotel. More than 400 companies will present this week to about 9,000 attendees at the JPMorgan conference.
The other important simultaneous events are:
- Biotech Showcase at the Parc 55 Wyndham hotel Jan. 12-14
- OneMedForum at the San Francisco Marriott Marquis on Jan. 12-13
- will focus on a couple hundred small-cap and private companies.
- OneMedChina will link Chinese Investors to strategic US Healthcare companies.
- Impromptu meetings between companies and investors at different hotels.
The focus on acquisitions by larger companies is starting early, Irish drugmaker Shire said Sunday morning it’s purchasing orphan-drug company NPS Pharmaceuticals for $5.2 billion. Then an announcement that Swiss drug giant Roche said it is buying a majority stake in diagnostics company Foundation Medicine, paying more than twice Foundation’s stock price per share.
Meg Tirell, reporter for CNBC stated that “Foundation makes genomic tests for cancer, aiming to help doctors determine what’s driving a patient’s disease and find the right drug to treat it. Roche will also invest $150 million in research and development funding for Foundation over five years, and sell Foundation’s products outside the U.S., the companies said.”
I will be making my way to this event and will be spending time with several companies, investors, meetings and visits to Starbucks.