Bankers and executives flooded an old San Francisco hotel this past January for the drug industry’s premier event for networking, hobnobbing and doing deals. Six months later, in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, the JP Morgan Annual Healthcare Conference, with its crowded panels and presentations, finger food and seas of suits, feels like a distant memory. But that doesn’t mean mergers are dead. As pharmaceutical companies search for COVID-19 treatments and vaccines, they’re also reverting to proven business strategies focused on lucrative therapies for cancer and rare diseases — and finding ways to explore tie-ups without having to meet in person. “We’re trying to get more back to a business-as-usual” approach to deals, said Lonnie Moulder, a founding general partner at Tellus BioVentures, a biotech investment fund focused on early-stage companies. “Most of pharma is saying the initial shock, most of that initial distraction, is over.”
Read the full article: Pharma Dealmakers, Sidelined in Pandemic, Are Ready for Comeback //
Source: https://www.expressnews.com/business/article/Pharma-dealmakers-sidelined-in-pandemic-are-15329567.php