SAN FRANCISCO Yet another J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference is done. Was it worth it?

All in all, this was a really pleasant week in San Francisco. The weather this year was an A-minus. There was a noticeable drop in attendance. Meeting rooms werent jam-packed. Ubers and Lyfts were easy to hail and coffee shops were bustling but not overloaded.

Maybe thats the simple solution to the hand-wringing over the future of JPM: fewer of you, plus sun.

advertisement

But FOMO!

The JPM circus has too many tents. It wasnt always this way. Once upon a time, everyone fit semi-comfortably in a single hotel on Union Square. And it was called JPM for a reason it was to serve the monied interests of a certain large Wall Street investment bank. And, in that sense, it has continued to serve that purpose. Its pay-to-play on a billion-dollar scale. Jamie Dimons health care bankers assemble a roster of presenting companies that either already pay investment banking fees, or will eventually. The select group of investor clients who fill the seats pay trading commissions to the banks brokers.

Im not passing judgment. Thats simply the way Wall Street works.

But at a certain point, JPM changed. Other investment banks and biopharma hangers-on bumrushed San Francisco to pick Dimons pocket. Then things got complicated. The conference got bigger, more unwieldy, less fun? Last year, we reached peak disgruntlement over rapacious hoteliers and the citys well-documented social and public health problems.

Maybe wed be better leaving JPM to J.P. Morgan.

What would everyone else do? For starters, there are dozens of alternative health care investment conferences held in New York, Boston, London, Miami, and Las Vegas. There are 51 other weeks during the year to attend those meetings.

Heres another idea. BIO, the industry trade group, should rethink and revamp its own investor conferences held in New York in February and San Francisco in October. Lets be honest, these events, which attempt to promote smaller biotechs, are not showstoppers.

How about merging the BIO events with Biotech Showcase, the largest, non-awful, non-JPM Week conference that also attracts smaller biotechs and their investors? Keep the San Francisco locale but move the combined events to October. Id attend.

Similarly, non-investor biotech folks cramming into San Francisco this week have plenty of other places to go. This is not an industry lacking attractive travel opportunities. Medical, science, and research meetings span the globe. Enjoy them!

BIO, again, should show some more leadership here by expanding its annual convention. There isnt a non-investor event held in San Francisco this week that couldnt happily inhabit a bolstered BIO convention, usually held in June in wonderful cities like San Diego, Boston, or Washington, D.C.

Anywhere but San Francisco in January. Leave that to J.P. Morgan.

Excerpt from:

The truth about the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference: Less is more - STAT