2024-01-04

This isn’t my first biotech bust.

I was present at the destruction wrought in 2008 and 2009, and can well recall the tone of my writing at the time. It was, in truth, a bitter stretch even more demanding than today’s oppressive — and inescapable — realities. The long innings with no IPOs and a bleak uncertainty about when it would get better.

But in the end, of course, it did get better. The industry mended, the sickest players went by the wayside, creating burned-out hulks that made for reverse merger shells. Investors began coming back, and slowly everything heated back up — until the boom came along and then…busted.

Of course.

My bet is that we’ll play out this classic cycle in the usual fashion. It doesn’t make it necessarily easier, but there are good reasons to keep breathing normally. New biotechs are still birthed, and the science —and this is an article of faith required to be in the business — is stunning. And then there's the recent market rally, which helps.

So how does this shape our plans going into JPMorgan?

Where there is movement — the deals, M&A, new approvals, fresh human data, the professional VCs and so on — the stakes are higher than ever. So it’s a time to be better prepared, working harder to understand the trends and how companies and their prospective drugs fit in — or don’t. And that has helped us design our biggest set of events ever hosted by Endpoints, spread over two days, and come up with invites for the people who are joining our panels and firesides.

We’ve set it up so you can dip into what you can’t miss, or go the distance with the show, as well as use our digs at the Marriott Marquis as your JPM24 office-away-from-the-office.