BIOCOM’s Investor Conference Highlights an Improving Economy and Innovation
Investment in the life sciences industry continues to lag, but at least it is better than last y ear. That seemed to be the overall sentiment at BIOCOM’s 4th annual investor conference that attracted more than 440 people, over 100 of them investors, to the Hyatt Regency La Jolla on Oct. 26 and 27.
“Things have changed, and they're not going back to the way they were,” health care analyst Dan Owczarski of investment bank Avondale Partners told the audience conference’s opening breakfast. Owczarski was on a panel of Wall Street analysts discussing the impact the economic downturn had on the life sciences industry.
An example of the industry’s new reality is what has happened in the IPO market. Most life sciences companies that want to go public are using a reverse merger to do so, panelists said. IPOs are ugly for everyone involved, said Jason Kantor, an analyst with RBC Capital Markets. It’s not like a window opening, he said. It’s more like throwing a chair through the window and everyone getting gouged on the way through, he said.
Seventy companies, both public and private, shared information about their business, development strategy and overall financial position during two days of corporate presentations during the conference.
Meanwhile, eight media outlets sent reporters to the conference to gauge the industry and investor mood and opinions. Here is a sampling of that coverage:
Thom Kupper in the San Diego Union-Tribune reports.
North County Times Biotechnology Reporter Brad Fikes reports