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The increased interest in JPM Week this year is an indication of an improved dealmaking environment for biotech, according to experts for the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) who are helping to drive partnering at the event.
Before the Jan. 13-16 gathering in San Francisco even begins, a record number of meetings have already been scheduled on BIO’s JPM Week partnering platform, providing one of several signs that biotech activity is ramping up, according to Bernard Fallon, BIO Deputy VP of Industry Programs.
“The macroeconomic indicators that we’re seeing include very strong interest in new deals—stronger than we’ve seen over the past two years, both on the innovative company side and the investor side,” says Fallon. “We see a positive outlook for the industry and for what people are looking to accomplish in 2025, so we can expect a lot of activity at JPM Week.”
The J.P. Morgan Healthcare conference—along with the events and networking taking place around the conference, collectively known as JPM Week—is one of the major annual biotech gatherings and is regarded as the kickoff to the year of biotech dealmaking. Participation at the JPM conference itself is by invitation only, and many of BIO’s member companies will be there.
For years, BIO’s main mission at JPM Week has been to facilitate the partnering that attracts many attendees and is at the heart of the biotech business. Biotech partnerships often involve small innovative firms with potential treatments uniting with larger firms who can bring those treatments to market. But there are many other types of partnerships, notes Mackensie Vernetti, VP of Partnering at BIO.
“While there are people looking for investment and there’s a significant investor audience, people are also looking for licensing deals, research collaborations, and other types of partnerships,” she says.
How BIO assists partnering
BIO has developed a cutting-edge partnering toolkit to facilitate networking at BIO’s own annual events, including the industry-leading BIO International Convention in June and February’s BIO CEO & Investor Conference, which has become an important follow-up to JPM Week.
BIO’s tools include the BIO One-on-One Partnering™ platform, which lets registrants enter their profile and describe what they’re looking for to automate partnering. Along with facilitating matchmaking and communication, the platform also assists with scheduling meetings.
Several days ahead of JPM Week, the BIO One-on-One Partnering™ platform had been used to schedule more than 6,000 meetings, a new record for the event, according to Vernetti. “Before even getting on the plane to go out to San Francisco, we’ve crushed our final number from last year,” she says.
Along with facilitating meetings, BIO also provides meeting locations at JPM Week, reserving space that partners can use at the Marriott Marquis in San Francisco.
“This year, in order to accommodate more meetings, we increased our space by 70%. We have over 100 meeting tables,” Vernetti says. “For many BIO partners or people using our platform, our meeting space becomes kind of their hub. They’re taking meetings there all day long, and they’re relying on the BIO partnering system to organize the majority of their JPM Week schedule.”
Vernetti says BIO’s partnering services at JPM Week help biotechs and their partners make the most of their precious time at this important gathering. According to Fallon, that’s the whole point.
“This is a service we provide, first to BIO members, but also to the whole biotech community, to make their partner experiences as efficient and as productive as possible,” he says. “This can help them obtain the capital that will ultimately enable them to get new medicines to patients.”
