Episode 118: The #1 Survival Guide to the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference for Biotech Leaders

Wanna come back from JPM with more than just a stack of business cards? Tune in for strategy and results. You're listening to BIO from the Bayou, empowering biotech leaders with the tools, assets, and expertise to improve healthcare outcomes.

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Serving the entire Gulf South, but recorded in the heart of New Orleans. Welcome back to BIO from the Bayou. I'm your host, Dr. Elaine Hamm, the executive in residence at Tulane School of Medicine, And with me, I have the incredible Chris Yocum. I'm going to have you introduce yourself. Tell the audience who you are, what you want them to know about you if they don't already know you, which I don't— how is that possible? How do people not know you?

Well, thanks, Elaine. And I'm thrilled to join you and Bio on the Bayou, which I've known about for quite a while, and share my experiences with JPMorgan. For those who don't know me, I spent 35 years with AstraZeneca. And I led both Zeneca and AstraZeneca's efforts at JPMorgan and BIO and other important partnering conferences for over 25 years as their global head of external relations on behalf of the business development team.

And we met probably like, oh gosh, I think when I first started in tech transfer, I was heading up the tech transfer office at OU. And I remember going to a BIO meeting, probably, I think this was in Atlanta at that. So like, this was when BIO was way back in the days in Atlanta. And I met you and I was like, oh, you were just this wonderful meeting. It was relaxing. It wasn't stressful. You were very welcoming. And we've been friends ever since. And as we are approaching JPM, and most of our listeners know, it's not my favorite conference. It's a little bit crazy. And for my Type A personality, it just, the lack of organization drives me absolutely bonkers. And I am heading into the fray this year because we're raising money. And well, James, the man who must not be named now because he's dead, to us because he left us alone here at Tulane. I have to take his spot at Tulane. So, I'm heading back into JPM, and as I was doing my own prep for this, I thought, God, who better to give advice on how to do JPM than you, Chris? And so, for those of us who don't know what JPM or have heard about it and never attended, give me the short description of how, how would you describe JPM, Chris?

Sure, Elaine. And you do have big shoes to fill there. I taught James everything he knows and he'll tell you that.

Yes, he will. He will. Absolutely.

But like so many students, he's far exceeded his teacher in his abilities. And we all congratulate him on his new role.

Absolutely. Absolutely. He's not technically dead to me. So.

For those who don't, who have never experienced JP Morgan, or maybe you went several years ago and haven't been back recently.

Yeah.

JP Morgan is an event more than it is just a conference.

Yep.

JP Morgan Healthcare Conference started around 1980 when Amgen and Genentech and IDEC and Biogen were about the only companies that attended back then. So it's been around for a long time. It always takes place in Union Square in San Francisco at the Westin St. Francis Hotel. The conference itself is invitation only and attracts about 5,000 to 6,000 individuals who get that coveted invitation from the investment bank, which is seeking to have them as a client.

Right.

And represent them. The vast majority of those companies that actually attend the conference are publicly traded or they're slated to go public, and that's their investment bank. So over the years, the conference morphed into the place to be and be seen because what is really unique about JP Morgan is it invariably attracts the C-level representatives from all the companies.

Yeah.

Whether you're big pharma, whether you're an investment bank or venture capital or a small biotech, It is truly a C-level event and very senior business development people.

Yeah.

But it's also a training ground for, or for up-and-coming business development people, entrepreneurs who are starting their own company and have left a big company to start their own company and such. So while there's no accurate record of how many people attend JP Morgan, It— there are reliable estimates of about $30,000 to $35,000, and that's gleaned from the fact that every single hotel in the city is booked.

Absolutely, and booked months and months in advance and probably $4,000 a night.

So yeah, yeah, the prices of the hotels have become astronomical, um, and you're lucky if you can get one. There's a few tourist-class hotels around that you might get for $300 or $400 a night. But the vast majority run $800 to $1,200, and there's a 3 or 4 night minimum as well.

Oh, yeah.

And while we're on the subject, you know, everybody thinks they need to go out there and they need a space to meet. And you do.

Yeah.

But forget about getting a conference room because unless you booked it last year or looking at this year for next year, you'll never get a conference room.

You'll never get it.

Incredibly difficult to get space to meet. So, you know, if you have good weather, you'll see people meeting out in Union Square. Which is a nice park. You'll see people trying to meet in the lobbies, but then someone in a uniform will come over and tap them on the shoulder and says, if you want to sit at this table, it's $50 for the first half hour and $100 for the hour. That's been a more recent phenomenon that they put a velvet rope around their lobby areas and actually get coffee, tea, or water.

Interesting.

For an astronomical sum. There's one anecdote of women meeting in the very plush lounges or bathrooms of some of the high-end hotels.

Oh, I love that.

Yeah. Having meetings actually in, in the bathroom. People meet anywhere they can. Breakfast meetings are very popular. Lunch meetings are popular. If you want a lunch meeting, make sure you book a reservation well in advance.

Last year, probably.

There's no such thing as getting a dinner reservation at this late date in any the restaurants within the Union Square area, but of course San Francisco is full of great places to eat. And if you go outside the Union Square area, you'll have no trouble finding a place for a dinner meeting. Plan to get up early. If you're from the East Coast, it helps.

Yeah, right.

And it's not at all unusual for people to have a full day of meetings from 7 AM working breakfast Till a working lunch and then ending around 5 or 6 because everybody's got multiple receptions to go to. And then they have a working dinner that starts at 9 o'clock because they couldn't get a 7 o'clock reservation. So yeah, you've got a long day. Comfortable shoes is more than fashionable. And I always remind people that you really need a, an efficient mechanism for sharing your contact information, whether that's old school and you share business cards. Which some people like because they make notes on them, or if you use an app or some other digital mechanism. The most important thing you walk away from every meeting, whether it's a formal meeting or an informal meeting, is a way to contact that person.

Well, and one of the best pieces of advice you gave me, and it was about bio a couple, several years ago, and it was to hydrate, drink water. And that was probably— I think about that every time I walk by one of those coffee stations and I go, nope, I'm not drinking coffee. I'm going to drink water, hot water with a lemon in it just so I don't lose my voice, which I invariably do at all of these conferences.

So yeah, never turn down an offer of a bottle of water or say a hot tea or something. If coffee's your thing and you need the stamina, that's okay, but just make sure you stay hydrated. Every year you will find people waking up on Tuesday morning and they have no breath, no, they have no voice.

They have no voice. Yes, I've been there, done that. It's not fun on the, on day 2 and you've got miles to go before you sleep. Well, let's talk. We have a lot of different types of listeners. We have academia, we have startups, we have CROs, in addition to those that are in larger pharmaceutical companies. And then, of course, we have my mom and my husband as avid listeners, of course, to this podcast. But what is winning JPM or having a great JPM conference mean to each of these sort of buckets of different people?

Well, I think winning at JPM is getting there on time, having your flights disrupted from the East Usually, yeah. I can't tell you the anxiety I've suffered through when your flights are canceled all day long and then you end up making it only as far as Phoenix. Logistics of getting there. I actually tell people, if you can get there on Saturday, do, because it's just that time of the year. It's hard to get there. So, so travel's a big part of it and all. But when it comes down to the individual groups, I think I got a couple of good examples of And I'll start with academics. This wasn't always a meeting that academics attended.

Yeah, it wasn't.

And that might've been because they were deprioritized by some of the other investors or companies, but that's all changed. Since big pharma outsources discovery these days, there's so many more investors looking to invest in university spinouts. It's actually very fertile ground. for networking. Because, and to contrast it with AUTM, which is a great meeting for education and understanding how tech transfer works, and we all got our start in tech transfer, and we really value those AUTM meetings, but they don't attract as many of the investors or as many of the, again, the senior representatives from the life science companies or the medical device companies. And so, some universities have taken a very formal approach I'll use UPenn as an example because UPenn has developed a reputation as a powerhouse in cell and gene therapy, the newer areas of biopharmaceuticals and life sciences that have transformed therapeutics for patients who had very few choices about therapeutics. And now with the advent of cell therapy and gene therapy, these are popular areas for investing.

Yeah.

And for spinouts and startups. And UPenn actually has a West Coast campus and they leverage that. Every year they do a seminar or symposium and they roll out the big guns.

Yeah.

You know, James Watson and Carl June are there shaking hands, meeting and greeting people. They have leveraged this event to raise hundreds of millions of dollars for their startup and spinout companies.

Yeah.

Very successfully, again, based on their reputation and based on their own prior success. And so any university that is in this space should consider attending. There are also satellite events that you can attend. There's the EBD Group uses the BioPartnering meeting there. That's hosted still at the Hilton Hotel. There are satellite symposiums and conferences that you can attend or get invitations to. So, there's a lot of things for academics to do. State economic development groups are out there also, you know, meeting people and connecting. And so, it's just a highly efficient system for making important connections or meeting individuals that you've, you know, from prior events. But it is hard to get those meetings.

I feel sometimes as a startup, I, you know, in addition to my role at Tulane, I have my own companies and Sometimes it feels I'm on the outside looking in, you know, I'm out in the rain and they're, everyone's having the nice dinner inside the fancy restaurant and I'm just looking in like a sad little puppy. It can feel like that a little bit, even though there are some satellite conferences, as you mentioned. I mean, so BIO has a partnering system that they have at the Marriott Marquis and there's a couple of rezzies there as well. And then, as you mentioned, there's a few other sort of conferences within the conference of, and there's a neuro group that meets on Sunday to do a neuro symposium. So how would a startup that's looking to raise money approach that if they don't know, they don't know who they don't know, shall we say?

Yeah. And those are great examples. And I do applaud BIO for taking the lead in setting up their partnering system out there, because it's really hard to be up to date, even if you attend every year, because the contacts gets stale very quickly. And somebody who was your lead contact at a big company last year is with a different company this year. Yeah.

Changes. Yeah.

So I applaud them for that. Again, a lot of the satellite events are advertised. Sadly, I will say though, you have to pull out your credit card to attend these events.

Yeah.

Knowing which ones are value added is important too. So I do like the event at the Hilton Hotel. I think they do an incredible job. But it's the same as paying to go to a regular partnering conference.

It is.

It's a couple of thousand dollars to go there. But you have partnering systems that allow, that facilitate your getting those meetings.

Yep.

The key thing, of course, it's based on the time that we're doing this broadcast. Most people, their calendars are already pretty booked.

They're already booked.

Pretty booked up.

Already booked.

I'm helping a small medical device company. And while we couldn't get them a meeting with an important large pharma, we were able to get them an invitation to a to a breakfast that they're having.

Yes, absolutely.

And you can get introduced at those breakfasts. A lot of the value of JPMorgan is just start the conversation.

Yeah.

Meet contacts who can either follow up with you or connect you to the right individual to follow up with afterwards.

Yeah, I think that's great advice. And I, for me this year, even though we are raising money, we have plenty of runway. So we're not going there with payroll not being able to be paid the next month. So, it gives us a little bit being in the catbird seat and not that desperation quite yet, quite yet. But going there and just starting the conversation and building relationships and knowing that, you know, in a year, maybe we might do a deal, maybe. But it's really just more about having the conversations and understanding the landscape. For me, this JPM versus— I gotta get a deal. I gotta license my thing. And that's too hard of a thing to, I think, accomplish at JPM unless you started last year. So.

You can always leverage your existing contacts to, to see if you can get someone at a target company.

Yeah.

I'll use the Marriott Marquis again as an example. That's where Bayou is, but it's also where Roche Genentech is. And it's really quite phenomenal. If you go up there to the mezzanine, they've really got Higher mezzanine level of this massive hotel that takes up an entire city block.

Yeah.

And what's daunting is when you get up there, they don't have one table and one or two, you know, hosts checking you in. They have 2 tables and 6 people checking in.

Yes.

Many meetings they're having every hour. It's really incredible. And you may be in a private suite, you may be at a table out in the lobby, but It's really important. I think your chances of walking up there, introducing yourself, and getting a meeting right there are— they're hard. They're difficult. Yeah.

Yeah.

But you don't have to go there with a full slate of meetings. You know, quality, not quantity, is really important. Always meeting the right representative from a large organization is better than 10 meetings with the wrong people.

Yeah.

Yeah. Again, you just have to leverage your past experiences and your connections. I will say there are a lot of consultants out there. I used to do this, up-to-date Rolodexes and have great relationships with their contacts.

Yeah.

I would publicly thank a friend of mine at one of those big companies who accommodated my most recent request. And people are willing to help people that they know and that they're going to bring high-quality companies to the attention of their organization. And that's what it's all about, is that familiarity and that trust that you're not going to waste our individual's time with an unqualified meeting. Of all the events out there, this is the one where you need to be prepared. I tell people, you must have a very effective 30-second pitch, a 1-minute pitch, and a 2-minute pitch.

Yeah.

You may be in line at a coffee shop, and you may have 2 minutes to tell them about yourself and your company. You may be in an elevator, and you literally have 30 seconds to tell them who you are and what your company is. And maybe they'll give you a business card and say, you know, we should talk afterwards or so and follow up. Yeah. Don't miss those opportunities. As an aside, and you can use this or not, I will never forget riding 40 floors in an elevator by myself on a Sunday afternoon before everything got started, and I failed to introduce myself to the other person in the elevator, and they turned out to be one of the most important people in the industry. And on Monday morning, they were on stage in the grand ballroom of the Westin St. Francis introducing all the big pharmaceutical companies.

Wow.

Because that person was the lead of pharma investing for JPMorgan.

Wow.

I promptly went up there when there was a break and reintroduced myself, apologized for not introducing myself, and they were very gracious. And they said, you know what, we've always wanted to meet somebody who could help us get Seneca to this event and get them to present. And ever since then, we've had a fantastic, longstanding relationship. And that person is Dennis Purcell, the founder of Hammerschmidt& Quist, H&Q, which later became JPMorgan Healthcare Conference.

That's incredible. I mean, when you hear those stories about elevator pitches, it's not a throwaway term. JPM is literally where that happens, and it's not a— it actually occurs. So when they say elevator pitch, it truly is. You're going to be in an elevator and you're going to be pitching. So Get ready.

Let's talk about when you sit down at those meetings, though.

Yeah, let's, let's get into that.

You need to keep in mind that these people, like you, are going to have a lot of meetings in the course of 3 or 4 days. I always try to say something memorable about myself. If you really want to be prepared for your meeting, look up your contact on LinkedIn. Always do that. Try and find something about your contact. And if they're into, have a similar interest, or if there's anything, maybe they worked at a company where you knew people, try to find something memorable so that they remember you and so that you stand out. I had no trouble doing that because like today, although people can't see it, I was well known for my very colorful shirts.

You are, yeah. And the fact that I had a bottomless budget for buying I love, I love a man that has both of those things. So.

But yeah, try to be memorable. And then try to convey something really memorable about your company. It may be the scientific pedigree. It may be the stage that you're at and what you're looking for. And it may be, or it may be that one of your scientific advisors is a god or goddess, you know, of life sciences.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's great. Well, the prep is very important and there's, There's a number of different ways to do that. I have— I'm trying out ChatGPT this year. I mean, BIO has their app that they've put out to kind of help navigate a lot of the conferences that are out there, but there's many more out there. So I have literally taken every reception, every possible person that I know is coming and going to be there, and I put it into ChatGPT and I said, make a schedule for me and tell me based on my goals. And I listed what my goals were. Tell me who I should meet, how I should navigate this.

And it's It's interesting.

It's an OK job, but the details are important. Who am I meeting with? What do they care about? What are they looking for? What is their LinkedIn profile? Do we have common interests? The old Dale Carnegie method is tried and true for a reason of just trying to get to know people and, and figure, figure out how you can connect.

I'd add one more thing on the venture capitalists and the investment banks. Well, I think it's really hard to get a meeting with a large medical device or a large pharma company because they go, they're fully booked. Their people are—

Totally.

Some of the investors actually do have people around that can talk to you. And a lot of them are up at the JW Marriott. Find out where they are. They might be at the Nikko Hotel, which is between the Park Hotel, Park 55, and the Hilton. But if you find out where they are, don't be afraid to go up to their floor and just ask if there's anybody, you know, available to meet with and leave your card. You never know, you might get a callback or you might even get introduced to somebody. You must be proactive. And if they say, I'm sorry, we'll follow up with you afterwards, just be gracious and thank them for their time and wish them a successful conference.

The follow-up is key. I can't tell you how many times, you know, you go to a conference, you have all of these great meetings, but you might flub the after, which is sometimes the most important part. Why did you go if you weren't going to do all the follow-ups? So, what do you suggest? What do you— what are your tips? for the follow-up and making sure that you're keeping track of things, but also that you're not being annoying and that you time it just right, because everyone's going to get back to a very full inbox and they're all going to follow up with a stack of business cards. How do you stand out in that follow-up?

I think your time at the conference is best utilized being out there meeting and connecting with people, unless you walk out of a meeting and somebody says, send me this right away because there's somebody here that I want to Or there's somebody back in the office that I want to send this to right away.

Yeah.

Unless you get that kind of guidance, you should wait till the following week to send something out to someone. And once you've done that, wait another week or 10 days if you don't hear anything back, and just— and then just politely nudge them and say, I hope you were able to review the conference. I know you have a lot of follow-up, and we're open to a Zoom or a Teams meeting or Any type of follow-up, you do have to be very proactive in the follow-up because they're sitting there with 50, 60, 70 presentations and they have to triage them. And I think the most important thing to walk away from a meeting is, are you interested? Getting a firm commitment of, is this in your space? Are you interested? And if you're not, that's okay. Or if you're very interested, Would you be interested in signing a CDA right away and having a confidential discussion?

Right, right.

Don't try to have a meeting under CDA at JPMorgan.

God, no.

Unless they specific— unless you're already in advanced talks and you're under a CDA, don't expect that because it's very hard to do.

Is there a point where people will follow up and it's too annoying?

I mean, how many times can you send an email before that person starts to, like, dread You know, I think if you don't hear anything back by the 3rd time, yeah, you can safely assume that you can try to meet them the next year and update them on the progress of your project, or try to meet them at BIO, or try to meet them at the BIO Europe meetings, wherever. But just accept that, you know, you often have to tell the story 2 or 3 times before you get traction. And people want, and people want to see, oh, that's an interesting area, but, you know, it's unvalidated and I'm not sure how successful that's going to be. And then 6 months or a year later, you can show them the great progress that you've made. And maybe then you can get a more, a meeting that generates more traction.

So tell me, I want to get into the nitty-gritty, maybe a little gossip. I mean, that's, I want the hot gossip, or at least stories from you about this of like, is there anyone that's been memorable in a good way and anyone that's been memorable in a bad way for you over the years? No names. You don't have to give any names.

No, no, I can be discreet. I think one thing you can never assume, whether you're coming out of a bathroom or whether you're in line at the coffee shop or you're waiting for your table at a restaurant, never underestimate who may be around you. And, you know, one of the columns in the Wall Street Journal back years ago was Heard on the Street or Heard in the Hallways of JP Morgan.

Yes, I used to follow that Twitter page.

Shocked at some of the things that get reported and overheard. So, be cognizant that there are listening ears around.

Yep.

I'll never forget, I think it was 2001, the biotech bubble, being in the hallways and watching And of course, cell phones were relatively new back then, and people were making trades based on what a CEO said in the first 30 seconds.

Wild.

Up on stage.

Wild. That's crazy.

Of course, those were before the days of selective disclosure. Be— just be respectful of people. Respectful of your time is really important. And try not to, whether you're in a social setting or whether you're in a meeting, I think one of the things, one of the best practices is try to have a mobile number of the person hosting your meeting, or if it's a big company, the person that set it up.

Sure.

It is nothing more frustrating than to have 5 or 6 people in a boardroom waiting for you to show up, and they don't know where you are.

Oh, yeah.

If you're running behind, if you're literally in the elevator, but you're on the 5th floor and you're going to the 40th floor, text them and say, we're in the elevator, we'll be there in a few minutes. Or, you know, we're on the other side of Union Square, but we'll be there in 5 minutes.

Yeah.

Always try to give a heads up of how far away you are and how much time it might take you to get there.

Yeah.

And of course, when you first sit down, If you're rushing off to another meeting, and this is why I never book 30-minute meetings. I try to book 30 to 45 minutes. You're gonna be 5 minutes late. You're gonna have to leave 5 minutes early.

Early. Yeah.

Smart. But a lot of companies will just book a 30-minute meeting, and that's okay. You better be on time for that 30-minute meeting if there's no flexibility. And again, being respectful of how long the meeting is, unless they tell you, you know what, let's take a few extra minutes.

Yeah. Yeah. That's great advice. As part of my ChatGPT prompt, I asked it to take into account travel time between the hotels and the different lobbies of the coffee shops I have meetings already prepared, because I, I hate that. And you're right, with getting that cell phone number and being able to text like, hey, I'm almost there, will help definitely.

You don't always have it, but it's great if you can, especially if it's a big company and it's an important meeting. Just say, hey, can I just get the cell phone number of who you're Who's going to be working your welcome table or your greet? You know, who's going to be doing the front office there so I can let them know?

This is great.

Because logistics— last year was beautiful weather, but 2 years before they had monsoon rains where people were literally getting blown down the street. I remember walking out of our conference room and people would walk around this one corner and they didn't know the wind was blowing and they would literally be swept off their feet.

Oh my gosh.

It was pray for good weather. That's all I—

Pray for good weather. Yeah, absolutely. Well, this has been amazing. I really appreciate your time. As a closer, maybe give the top either bless your heart moments in terms of like mistakes that you've seen. You're Southern, you get it. What the, what bless your heart actually means in the South for us, of things that you've seen, or maybe tips, which, whichever you prefer to, to leave our listeners with.

Well, there are amazing hospitality events at JPMorgan.

Yeah.

And do not be afraid to follow a crowd to an event. Be very polite at the door and say, I'm with them, or I'm with this company. Could I possibly, you know, join the reception? Many will let you in because it's so competitive. They want a full house too.

True.

But many have a full house and you may be politely turned away. But the receptions are just as important as some of the confirmed meetings that you're going to have, because that's where you get introduced to people. That's where people are a little more relaxed and a little more— but just watch your, your alcohol intake. You know, don't— yep. Don't be the one that's remembered because You were too loud and too gregarious and a little bit too much to drink. You don't want to leave a bad impression that way. The other thing is just courtesy. Courtesy is always recognized and acknowledged. And I think it's very important that you try to maintain civility in a very chaotic environment. It does you no good to get upset. Or create a scene. Don't make a TikTok video— I'm TikTok video famous. You've created someone, whether it's an Uber driver or a desk clerk, and especially an executive assistant at a table trying to get you into your meeting.

Yeah, never. I love that. Well, you know, that's good advice for us all right now. Civility. Let's be kind to each other. Perfect way to end this, as this will be released the week before JPM. So, and it'll be right after the holiday season. Hopefully everyone will have an amazing holiday break and we'll be looking forward to a new year, new start, fresh start.

I want to thank you for the invitation. As you may know, I'm transitioning to my official retirement. And while I am helping a couple of companies get some meetings, I will not be attending because I'm going to be relocating to a southern destination for the rest of the winter.

Oh, smart.

Logistics didn't allow me to attend this year, but I will just say I'll be watching it. And if I get that welcome invitation to at least listen to the presentations live from my contacts at JPM, I, I hope so. And I will be listening to presentations. And let's just hope that this is a really positive meeting with a lot of momentum because it's been a tough few years for the industry. There are, as Dennis says, the light— there is light at the end of the tunnel. And we do believe that there's going to be fresh investments made and there's going to be liquidity events. And we will return to an environment where startups and early-stage companies can get that next tranche of funding or can get a licensing deal or a sponsored collaboration with a partner. And I'm optimistic that JP Morgan 2026 will be a success for the entire life science industry.

Well, you heard it here first and from your lips to all the right people's ears. Thank you, Chris. Always a pleasure to chat with you. And hopefully I'll see you in the halls somewhere at a conference or maybe in New Orleans. You never know. Your family's quite well known there, so we can see you on Bourbon Street maybe. Well, no, we won't go to Bourbon Street. We don't do that. You never know. Never say never.

Make sure you have 2 pairs of shoes.

Oh, oh, oh, absolutely. And of course, the umbrella. Can't forget that.

Thank you very much for the invitation, and best of luck to everyone attending the JPMorgan Healthcare Conference and all the satellite events taking place in San Francisco the second week of January.

Perfect. Well, as always, we'll have information that we talked about today in our show notes. Be sure to check them out and. Stay tuned for the next episode of Bio from the Bayou.

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This podcast was edited by Resonate Recordings.