{"id":598771,"date":"2023-01-18T12:49:50","date_gmt":"2023-01-18T18:49:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.sellorbuyhomefast.com\/index.php\/2023\/01\/18\/the-biggest-buzziest-conference-for-health-care-investors-convenes-amid-fears-the-bubble-will-burst\/"},"modified":"2023-01-18T12:49:50","modified_gmt":"2023-01-18T18:49:50","slug":"the-biggest-buzziest-conference-for-health-care-investors-convenes-amid-fears-the-bubble-will-burst","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2023\/01\/18\/the-biggest-buzziest-conference-for-health-care-investors-convenes-amid-fears-the-bubble-will-burst\/","title":{"rendered":"The Biggest, Buzziest Conference for Health Care Investors Convenes Amid Fears the Bubble Will Burst"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Westin St. Francis San Francisco on Union Square hotel hosted this year\u2019s JPMorgan Healthcare Conference \u2014 the first since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. (Darius Tahir \/ KHN)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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SAN FRANCISCO \u2014 Health care\u2019s business class returned to its San Francisco sanctuary last week for JPMorgan\u2019s<\/a> annual health care confab, at the gilded Westin St. Francis hotel on Union Square. After a two-year pandemic pause, the mood among the executives, bankers, and startup founders in attendance had the aura of a reunion \u2014 as they gossiped about promotions, work-from-home routines, who\u2019s getting what investments. Dressed in their capitalist best \u2014 ranging from brilliant-blue or pastel-purple blazers to puffy-coat chic \u2014 they thronged to big parties, housed in art galleries or restaurants.<\/p>\n

But the party was tinged with new anxiety: Would the big money invested in health care due to covid-19 continue to flow? Would investors ask to see results \u2014 meaning profits \u2014 rather than just cool ideas?<\/p>\n

The buzzy conference had just as many words about profits as about patients. The mostly maskless crowd spoke English, French, Japanese \u2014 and, of course, money.<\/p>\n

Besides the corporate and investment types, attendees routinely saw surprising characters \u2014 like celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz, fresh off a Senate run, holding court in the lobby on Jan. 10.<\/p>\n

If the vibe in the hotel\u2019s congested halls was upbeat \u2014 or, at least, cheery \u2014 underneath there was a frisson of anxiety as all were aware that the health care business bonanza looked to be slowing down.<\/p>\n

The conference started with a sidewalk protest of pharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences, whose drugs combating HIV and hepatitis C are fabulously effective \u2014 and fabulously expensive. During the pandemic, Congress for the first time has set up a plan to allow Medicare to negotiate U.S. drug prices, which are by far the highest in the world. In a statement, company spokesperson Catherine Cantone<\/a> said Gilead is the largest private funder of HIV programs in the U.S., adding, \u201cGilead\u2019s role in ending the HIV and hepatitis epidemics is to discover, develop, and ensure access to our life-saving medicines.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s the economic environment, which is turning treacherous. Journalists at financial publication Bloomberg diagnosed a lack of exciting deals<\/a>. Startup executives \u2014 who previously found millions of dollars in investments easy to come by \u2014 seemed obligated to show results in their impromptu pitches in bars and coffee shops. Business executives of all stripes promised they either currently made profits or were about to, soon.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this is a tricky year,\u201d said Hemant Taneja<\/a>, CEO of the venture capital firm General Catalyst, during one panel. He suggested that large swaths of health tech startups were overvalued and that their clients will be more interested in whether they\u2019re actually providing useful services.<\/p>\n

The new message from potential investors was clear. \u201cThe idea you could grow and not be profitable is dead, gone,\u201d said Dr. Jon Cohen<\/a>, CEO of the mental health startup Talkspace, in an interview.<\/p>\n

There was some cognitive dissonance at the conference. Take, for example, BioNTech, the vaccine developer whose mRNA vaccine, created with Pfizer, provides powerful protection for covid. Company co-founder U\u011fur \u015eahin<\/a> was interrupted by applause during a presentation recounting its role in fighting the pandemic \u2014 and that\u2019s before he touted his company\u2019s role in reducing infectious disease, saving lives, and meeting global health needs for tuberculosis and malaria.<\/p>\n

The conversation later turned to the pricing of his company\u2019s flagship vaccine \u2014 which it\u2019s jockeying to set at more than $100 a dose, up from an average government purchase price of $20.69<\/a>. It was a fair price considering the \u201chealth economics,\u201d BioNTech\u2019s chief strategy officer, Ryan Richardson<\/a>, explained: the hospitalizations and serious outcomes averted.<\/p>\n

Or take drugstore giant CVS \u2014 which is steadily expanding beyond its retail roots into health insurance and primary care. CVS Health CEO Karen Lynch<\/a> said that as part of its health business the company is looking at all the factors that underlie being well. \u201cHealth isn\u2019t just about the engagement with the provider; it\u2019s about all the other factors \u2014 including housing and nutrition,\u201d she said. Left unaddressed was the sight often greeting CVS customers upon entering a store: candy, chips, and other processed foods.<\/p>\n

For critics, it was a mind-bending comment. \u201cThe last I heard, CVS was a for-profit company, not a social welfare agency,\u201d said Marion Nestle<\/a>, a researcher who is a longtime critic of the food industry. \u201cIt sells junk foods that make people sick and drugs to treat those illnesses. How\u2019s that for a nifty business model!\u201d<\/p>\n

CVS spokesperson Ethan Slavin<\/a> offered a very different vision, one in which CVS is seeking to be a premier health and wellness destination. \u201cWe\u2019re always evolving our food and beverage assortment to provide healthier, on-trend products.\u201d It is also supporting programs to bolster food availability in underserved areas, he added.<\/p>\n

Some techies encountered new skepticism about \u201cartificial intelligence.\u201d Ginkgo Bioworks co-founder Jason Kelly<\/a> noted during his presentation that people at the conference heard so much about artificial intelligence during the meetings, \u201cthey want to stop hearing it.\u201d (Ginkgo\u2019s AI, used to support pharmaceutical and biotech research, he said, was different than the rest.)<\/p>\n

One surgeon, Dr. Rajesh Aggarwal<\/a>, found conversations with financiers about the stealth startup he founded, which focuses on metabolic health, were focused on silver bullets. \u201cTell me if I invest in this, I\u2019ll 10x\u201d the outlay, he said, paraphrasing the bankers. Many, he said, wanted to \u201cdo some good as well\u201d for patients.<\/p>\n

Aggarwal felt the investors were looking for simple solutions to health problems. And one item fit that bill: a new class of drugs \u2014 GLP-1 agonists, a type of medication that aids in weight loss but will likely have to be taken for long periods. Some analysts are projecting these drugs will be worth $50 billion. The bankers, Aggarwal felt, aren\u2019t \u201cthinking about health care,\u201d they\u2019re \u201cthinking about the dollars attached to the pill.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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\n Darius Tahir<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Westin St. Francis San Francisco on Union Square hotel hosted this year\u2019s JPMorgan Healthcare Conference \u2014 the first since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. (Darius Tahir \/ KHN) SAN FRANCISCO \u2014 Health care\u2019s business class returned to its San Francisco sanctuary last week for JPMorgan\u2019s annual health care confab, at the gilded Westin<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":598772,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[171,118137],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-598771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-biggest","category-buzziest"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=598771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598771\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/598772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=598771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=598771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=598771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}