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Dealmakers, investors and healthcare chieftains descended on San Francisco this week for the annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare confab amid a sense of bullishness and optimism for the deal business and healthcare industry.
Yes, security was more prominent but unobtrusive, yes, Waymo has taken over the city with scores of driverless taxis shuttling executives around, and yes, everyone was either talking about GLP-1 drugs or taking one. Sabrina Valle, Thomson Reuters’ newish M&A reporter, summed up the feeling quite well amid a flurry of deals inked by names like J&J, Eli Lilly, and GSK.
In addition to the actual conference, we very much enjoyed Endpoints’ lineup of panelists and speakers, including an activism panel with David Rosewater of Morgan Stanley and Elina Tetelbaum of Wachtell, who said, “industry watchers should keep an eye on the rate of settlements. Because the deal environment is expected to be more favorable, activists could return to companies that they did not fully press on and more forcefully call for changes.”
The highlight, however, was a discussion with UC Berkeley professor Jennifer Doudna, the Nobel Laureate and CRISPR pioneer in editing the human genome, who praised the public university system in California and its connection to Silicon Valley (and who sported a black leather jacket à la Jensen Huang.) No Waymo from the East Bay for Professor Doudna— “I took the BART over and overheard a great conversation about AI and biotech,” she noted.
The parties were packed and among the highlights were Goodwin’s event at the Press Club as well as Denton’s wine tasting event.
Lastly, our thoughts are with all of those who have been affected by the California wildfires.
Have a great weekend,
GPP team
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