The Westin St. Francis San Francisco on Union Sq. lodge hosted this yr’s JPMorgan Healthcare Convention — the primary for the reason that onset of the coronavirus pandemic. (Darius Tahir/KHN)
Darius Tahir/KHN
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Darius Tahir/KHN
The Westin St. Francis San Francisco on Union Sq. lodge hosted this yr’s JPMorgan Healthcare Convention — the primary for the reason that onset of the coronavirus pandemic. (Darius Tahir/KHN)
Darius Tahir/KHN
SAN FRANCISCO — Well being care’s enterprise class returned to its San Francisco sanctuary final week for JPMorgan’s annual well being care confab, on the gilded Westin St. Francis lodge on Union Sq.. After a two-year pandemic pause, the temper among the many executives, bankers and startup founders in attendance had the aura of a reunion — as they gossiped about promotions, work-from-home routines, who’s getting what investments. Dressed of their capitalist greatest — starting from brilliant-blue or pastel-purple blazers to puffy-coat stylish — they thronged to massive events held in artwork galleries and eating places.
However the get together was tinged with new anxiousness: Would the large cash invested in well being care because of COVID-19 proceed to stream? Would buyers ask to see outcomes — which means earnings — quite than simply cool concepts?
The buzzy convention had simply as many phrases about earnings as about sufferers. The principally maskless crowd spoke English, French, Japanese — and, after all, cash.
In addition to the company and funding varieties, attendees routinely noticed stunning characters — like celeb physician Mehmet Oz, recent off his Senate loss, holding court docket within the foyer on Jan. 10.
If the vibe within the lodge’s congested halls was upbeat — or, a minimum of, cheery — beneath there was a frisson of tension as all have been conscious that the well being care enterprise bonanza seems to be to be slowing down.
The convention began with a sidewalk protest of pharmaceutical firm Gilead Sciences, whose medicine combating HIV and hepatitis C are fabulously efficient — and fabulously costly. In the course of the pandemic, Congress for the primary time has arrange a plan to permit Medicare to barter U.S. drug costs, that are by far the best on the planet. In an announcement, firm spokesperson Catherine Cantone stated Gilead is the biggest personal funder of HIV applications within the U.S., including, “Gilead’s position in ending the HIV and hepatitis epidemics is to find, develop, and guarantee entry to our life-saving medicines.”
‘A tough yr’
Then there’s the financial surroundings, which is popping treacherous. Journalists at monetary publication Bloomberg diagnosed a lack of exciting deals. Startup executives — who beforehand discovered tens of millions of {dollars} in investments simple to come back by — appeared obligated to point out leads to their impromptu pitches in bars and low retailers. Enterprise executives of all stripes promised they both at present made earnings or have been about to … quickly.
“I believe this can be a tough yr,” stated Hemant Taneja, CEO of the enterprise capital agency Common Catalyst, throughout one panel. He prompt that enormous swaths of well being tech startups have been overvalued and that their purchasers might be extra curious about whether or not they’re really offering helpful companies.
The brand new message from potential buyers was clear. “The concept you may develop and never be worthwhile is useless, gone,” stated Dr. Jon Cohen, CEO of the psychological well being startup Talkspace, in an interview.
Some tried to have a good time each monetary and humanitarian success. BioNTech co-founder Uğur Şahin was interrupted by applause throughout a presentation because the developer, with Pfizer, of the mRNA vaccine recounted the pictures’ position in combating the pandemic. And that was earlier than he touted his firm’s position in decreasing infectious illness, saving lives, and assembly world well being wants for tuberculosis and malaria.
The dialog later turned to the pricing of his firm’s flagship vaccine — which it is jockeying to set at greater than $100 a dose, up from an average government purchase price of $20.69. 100 bucks is a good value contemplating the “well being economics,” BioNTech’s chief technique officer, Ryan Richardson, argued: the hospitalizations and severe outcomes averted.
A mind-bending remark
There was some cognitive dissonance on the convention. Think about drugstore big CVS — which is steadily increasing past its retail roots into medical insurance and first care. CVS Well being CEO Karen Lynch stated that as a part of its well being enterprise the corporate is taking a look at all of the components that underlie being properly. “Well being is not simply in regards to the engagement with the supplier; it is about all the opposite components — together with housing and vitamin,” she stated. Left unaddressed was the sight typically greeting CVS clients upon coming into a retailer: sweet, chips, and different processed meals.
For critics, it was a mind-bending remark. “The final I heard, CVS was a for-profit firm, not a social welfare company,” stated Marion Nestle, a researcher who’s a longtime critic of the meals trade. “It sells junk meals that make folks sick and medicines to deal with these diseases. How’s that for a nifty enterprise mannequin!”
CVS spokesperson Ethan Slavin supplied a really totally different imaginative and prescient, one by which CVS is in search of to be a premier well being and wellness vacation spot. “We’re at all times evolving our meals and beverage assortment to supply more healthy, on-trend merchandise.” It is usually supporting applications to bolster meals availability in underserved areas, he added.
Some techies encountered new skepticism about “synthetic intelligence.” Ginkgo Bioworks co-founder Jason Kelly famous throughout his presentation that folks on the convention heard a lot about synthetic intelligence in the course of the conferences, “they need to cease listening to it.” (Ginkgo’s AI, used to assist pharmaceutical and biotech analysis, he stated, was totally different than the remainder.)
One surgeon, Dr. Rajesh Aggarwal, discovered conversations with financiers in regards to the stealth startup he based, which focuses on metabolic well being, have been targeted on silver bullets. “Inform me if I make investments on this, I will 10x” the outlay, he stated, paraphrasing the bankers. Many, he stated, wished to “do some good as properly” for sufferers.
Aggarwal felt the buyers have been searching for easy options to well being issues. And one merchandise match that invoice: a brand new class of medication — GLP-1 agonists, a kind of medicine that aids in weight reduction however will seemingly must be taken for lengthy durations. Some analysts are projecting these medicine might be price $50 billion. The bankers, Aggarwal felt, aren’t “fascinated with well being care,” they’re “fascinated with the {dollars} hooked up to the capsule.”
KHN (Kaiser Well being Information) is a nationwide, editorially unbiased program of the Kaiser Household Basis.
