Philly biotech execs find ‘optimistic vibe’ at invitation-only JPM Healthcare Conference

Christopher P. Molineaux caught an Uber to Philadelphia International Airport just before the icy rain started on Saturday, so naturally the driver asked if he were headed somewhere warm.

The answer — San Francisco — prompted the driver to ask a follow-up question:

“You going to JPM?”

Molineaux was indeed headed to the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, the buzzy, invitation-only dealfest known to biotech start-ups, venture capitalists, and savvy Uber drivers alike.

As the president and chief executive officer of the trade group Life Sciences Pennsylvania, Molineaux helped host a reception at a San Francisco hotel Sunday for more than 340 people who were in town for the conference or related events. Among them were close to 90 representatives from Pennsylvania biotech firms, mostly from the Philadelphia area.

The last two years have been tough for the biotech industry, marked by lackluster investment and layoffs. But news of three acquisitions of cancer-drug start-ups on Monday morning has contributed to an “optimistic vibe,” Molineaux said.

Merck & Co. said it was buying Harpoon Therapeutics of South San Francisco for $680 million. Novartis, which has U.S. offices in King of Prussia, announced a $250 million purchase of Amsterdam-based Calypso Biotech BV. And Johnson & Johnson topped them both with news of a $2 billion deal to buy La Jolla, Calif.-based Ambrx Biopharma Inc.

“The large companies are still looking to fill their pipelines, and biotech companies are continuing to innovate,” Molineaux said.

The meeting on Sunday was at The Marker San Francisco, cohosted by Life Sciences PA along with other trade groups from California, Michigan, Virginia, New York, and Arizona. Attendees were encouraged by a recent surge in the stock prices of biotechs that have gone public, Molineaux said.

“It was generally an optimistic vibe, for sure,” he said. “People have a ton of meetings on their schedules.”

Along with more than 300 company representatives were several officials from the National Institutes of Health, talking about programs to assist biotech entrepreneurs with the earliest stages of drug development, Molineaux said. (His Uber driver knew about JPM because he worked in the information technology industry, he said.)

The main JPM conference got underway at the Westin St. Francis on Monday, limited to just 10,000 invitees. But several times that many people have gone to San Francisco to take advantage of the event, holding meetings on the margins of the conference, Molineaux said.

“Most of the activity actually takes place outside of the conference itself,” he said. “It’s really fascinating. You see dozens of people you know just walking down the sidewalk.”

The conference lasts until Thursday. Molineaux was able to stay for just two days, and was speaking from the San Francisco airport while waiting on Monday for his flight back to Philadelphia. This time, he’ll be ready for any smart questions from his Uber driver.