Episode 119: 2026 Biotech Market Update – What Investors Are Watching Right Now

What's hot? What's not?

And who wore it best? We're talking market trends on this episode of Bio from the Bayou. You're listening to Bio from the Bayou, empowering biotech leaders with the tools, assets, and expertise to improve healthcare outcomes.

Each episode provides insights and information to expand your network, advance your product line, and help your company thrive.

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 I'm Travis Menasco, a principal at Solis Bioventures, and this is my first time as a co-host joining the pod. Yeah, very excited.

No longer alone. No longer all by myself. Oh, that was not good. Oh, okay. You know, it's early. It's really not. It's almost noon, but all right, let's get into it. It's your first episode really as co-host here, but not your first episode. You've been here, so—

Been here.

This is easy.

Love it.

Yeah.

Thanks for having me again. Yeah, for sure. Again.

Well, we are here to pick your brain about what's hot in the market. So what's hot, what's not, who wore it best, whatever you wanna call it. Let's talk about some of the biggest trends that you're seeing in biotech funding right now as somebody who funds biotech. And I'll be taking all of the notes so I can either, you know, put my investor hat on, or if I wanna find a new drug, I know where to look.

Absolutely.

So let's do it. What you got? What you got that's hot?

Let's dive in. I think what I'd like to talk about are kind of biopharma and then also talk about medtech and what we're seeing in the market. It's been an interesting year. It's been an interesting, you know, I've been doing this for 4 years and I've seen the highs of 2021 where preclinical companies were going public, you know, and that was my first foray into the realm. And then you saw Moderna and these, you know, this great Pfizer and all these companies, you know, really changed, you know, with the mRNA vaccines. And now, and then you had just a complete dropping off. And then, you know, where are we now?

Everything's fine.

Yeah, it's— I think it's fine is probably a good way to describe it. Like, how are you? Fine. You know, like, there are— you know what that means? You know, it's like, it's okay. Yeah.

Yeah. I don't do the head tilt. Like, how are you doing? But there's definitely not a— yeah, everything's amazing and sunshine and lollipops kind of moment right now. So it's fine.

Yep, unless you're an obesity company. But I mean, yes, yeah, or you're Eli Lilly, which, which did just hit a trillion-dollar market cap today. So we're gonna date this episode on when we're recording it.

But yeah, we are. Ian hates when that happens, but that's all right.

Ah, it's fine. On some nebulous date this happened, but who knows?

But yeah, I'm sure they've made a bit on another thing in between now and when the episode releases. But yeah, they're I mean, got that Mounjaro money they gotta spend. So yeah, so I mean, obesity, you mentioned it. Obesity is obviously where a lot of innovation heat is, I would say. But also like that can always glut the market. And now everyone is trying to pivot into either targeting GLP-1s or trying to find some kind of companion to GLP-1s. So what are your thoughts around it?

I I think, I think 2 things are true in that GLP-1s are complete game changers. You know, as a physician, I've seen patients that were on lose 50, 60 pounds, get rid of their CPAP device, get rid of 3 to 4 antihypertensives. So there's real value there. And Eli Lilly and Novo and all the companies are, they're doing these really well-run trials and all these different indications. There's obesity, and then I think intuitively you think obesity and then all these downstream effects of cardiovascular disease, stroke, obstructive sleep apnea. And then— but—

Yeah, they have some other interesting applications that I've been super kind of jazzed to see in terms of mechanism. I mean, I've heard everything from like anti-inflammatory diseases, cognition type things. I mean, there's obviously sort of the Related, as we think about food noise suppression, we think about sort of alcoholism and some, some of the psychiatric pieces. But it's really interesting to see this pivot into some other markets that you don't really think about.

Absolutely. I mean, I think we've just scratched the surface and I think an analogy would kind of be, you know, if you look back at cancer treatment 20, 30 years ago and you had chemo and then you kind of got more and more targeted and you got more and more specific with biomarkers and specific types of cancer and going further and further down to where now it's like, you know, there's all—

And CAR-T too.

Oh, CAR-T as well, you know? And so, you know, are we going to look at a world where there's all these different types of subtypes of obesity and then there's maybe there's a, who knows? This is 2 things. One, not financial advice and all speculation. So let me put that in there.

Yes, let's put the disclaimers right now.

But you could imagine a world where there's these kind of the backbone of these drugs that are out there for potentially addiction if the data goes that way. And then Novo actually has really interesting— I just really nerd out on this stuff. So like Novo has this—

Don't worry, I literally pushed my glasses up as we talked about this. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. And I think it's really interesting. Novo has this study coming out, which will be by the time this is done, we'll all know, does an oral semaglutide Lower cognitive delay and Alzheimer's. I mean, thousands of patients, and these studies are not cheap to run. I mean, this is really a big, a big pharma, pharma world, as we saw recently to transition, you know, just to say like—

Transition's killing it.

Yes. Transition. You see, it was a very public, and I'll go back to the public markets a second, but there was a very public bidding war, which I don't know, Elaine, have you ever seen a bidding war like Pfizer and, and Novo?

Not in recent memories that I've seen, no. More than just the different markets that GLP-1s and semaglutide and the oral versions and the different formulations and the different markets they can go into, I also think sort of the subcategories that fall in line with this, like when we talk about GLP-1s, we always talk about sort of the muscle loss that you can see when you're on these drugs. So I can see some potential drugs coming up and sort of building up that muscle piece of it. Diseases like cachexia, for example, I mean, but building up along that, you take your GLP-1, but you're also taking something that can make sure that you're not losing that muscle mass that can occur when you're losing weight very rapidly on these drugs. So that's my opinion. I, that's whether that actually comes true or not, we'll see. But you already see the protein market and supplement market that have, has boomed around these GLP-1s.

Oh yeah.

So why not?

Oh yeah. Why not?

All right.

Absolutely.

Let's, so, so where I feel like AI and drug discovery And then this isn't just in pharma, but I feel like AI is— are we at a bubble in biotech? I feel like other places and other markets, we're hitting that bubble. I'm not sure if we are in the AI space yet or not.

It's a good question. And the answer is, I don't know. But— Hey, cool.

That was my answer too. I've seen a lot of rumblings around the AI bubble and lots of stuff around NVIDIA, but I, I don't know if I feel like that's true in biotech. I still feel like we have a lot of progress. I mean, I think that you'll see the shakeout of sort of like, eh, they're not like the not really good AI companies sort of fall out of the market. The ones that didn't really have a strong value proposition or me-tos or weren't really using AI per se. I think we'll start to see those kind of go by the wayside. And the ones that really have a strong value proposition as it relates to the AI in biotech and in med health and all of that. I think that we'll see those really propel forward, but I don't know if we're at the biotech bubble yet of AI.

Yeah, I don't, I don't think so either. And I think when you look at biotech and overall drug development, the whole pathway, not just targets, finding more targets, which is what a lot of these AI Companies, to my understanding, are trying to do. They're trying to find more targets, drug the undruggable, which needs to be done. But at the top of— there's a big funnel of assets and they have to go through this regulated pathway, right? You know, like, so you have to go through clinical, you still have to run the clinical trials of phase 1, phase 2, you know, phase 3.

And have our guardrails up for sure.

So definitely, yeah. And so that is going to put I think guardrails is a good way to describe it. And it's going to— or, I don't know, bumper bowling. You guys ever go bumper bowling back in the day?

I really want to go bowling.

Yeah. I mean, I know.

A couple beers in, and yeah, I'm wanting to use those bumpers that push that 5-year-old out of my way and save the bowling ball.

That's right. You got to have those bumpers. You got to have the bumpers.

You got to push those 5-year-olds away.

You do.

No, you're exactly right in terms of our industry rather than other industries. And we've talked about this on the show before. We are very lucky in a lot of ways. ways in that we have guardrails up already in place of what's going to be safe. Still has to go through those safety checkboxes, whether you use AI or not, doesn't matter. Is it safe? Does it work? Is still our gold standard, north star, whatever you want to call it. But the consumer health piece, I think, is a little less, is probably a little more nebulous. So that'll be interesting to see how that works out in terms of an AI bubble. I'm curious how investors are going to be looking at those types of companies these days. So how are you guys looking at AI?

Yeah, it's a good question. We definitely are, and we're seeing it along all different areas. So the early AI and drug discovery, we're not that early. We typically come in the clinical stage, but I've spoken to investors just recently that kind of play in that space, and you really have to have a strong moat about your technology and the kind of assets you're developing and your processes because As we've been seeing, things can be copied pretty quickly and easily. Uh, oh, I don't want to say easily. I'm not the one in the lab doing the copying. I'm sure there's a lot of, you know—

Computers work by magic.

Yeah. So, so, and so you're seeing that. And so where we kind of come in and where I, where I like personally, like doctor hat on or investor hat on, where I'm really excited about is how can we make clinical trials more efficient? How can we make the regulatory process more efficient? How can we lower the development stage? Elaine, you don't, you don't need me to tell you, you know, it's all about timeline. It's all about enrollment. It's all, it's all about the burn. And, and that's exciting because one thing we generate in the healthcare space is a lot of data. And so if we can—

A lot of data. Yes, absolutely.

A lot of data. And if there are usable insights and there are ways to, to help with all those things, I think that's really exciting. We look at our AI thesis and I don't remember what episode is it, but please see episode, uh, what is it? Yeah.

Yeah.

I'll link it in the show notes.

With a completely different voice too. So that's really—

Yeah. But where, where we look is, you know, we look at how does, how can AI improve clinical workflows? How can it fit in and augment the speed that doctors, nurses, pharmacists, clinical trial professionals, how they do their job? And if it can fit in, if it can be reimbursed, if it, that's a big one, obviously.

Yeah, that's the one I hate, to be honest, Travis. Like, I hate the use of AI in insurance. It just makes me feel bleh. I don't know.

Is it AI to say no to an insurer? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Definitely don't like that. I want to go on record of saying that as well.

Yeah, it makes sense because it's— you're talking about going through, like, you give it some commands and it would, you know, make decision trees for it, whatever. It makes sense. It's still super gross and I hate it, but yes, totally. I want to go back to that data piece you said, because it's true, we do have a lot of data, but you know what we don't have a lot of data on is women and minorities. And I think that that is a potential thing that we're not really talking about as it relates to AI and the biotech drug development industry, is that are we going to pigeonhole ourselves again into developing things that are for the white male? No offense, Travis and Ian. Sorry.

None taken.

Love you guys. Don't want my drugs to look exactly like your guys' drugs. But the worry I have is because we haven't really had a chance. I mean, I do feel like speaking to biotech trends, I do feel like women's health has finally met its moment and is finally on stage. But that also indicates that we don't have enough data on the ladies to actually be able to start training the AI on. So just an aside of something that's been what I wake up at 3:00 AM and think about is, do we have enough data on women and minorities to effectively use AI?

So— I don't think we do. I don't think we do. And I think it's completely necessary. And, and how do we get more minorities and women into clinical trials and understanding the clinical trial? Because access to clinical trials is, is really a— it's important, especially as you get— unfortunately, if you get further along in cancer treatment, if you get, you know, or you have these kind of, you know, rare diseases. So yeah, the more data we can have on all the different populations of people that are taking drugs and that get sick, we all do. And I mean, I agree.

Well, and let's talk a little bit about women's health. You guys have, you have a particular interest in women's health, as I recall. Your founder is an OB-GYN, is that right?

Right. Yeah. Maternal fetal medicine.

Yep. Look at that memory.

Good memory.

Trap.

Yeah.

Um, let's talk a little bit what you're seeing in terms of women's health, especially sort of the fetal maternal medicine piece, which I think is super interesting and incredibly important. I mean, when I was wanting to start a company several years ago, I was trying to find stuff in women's health and there just wasn't a ton out there because we haven't spent a lot of money on the, you know, OB Absolutely.

And you look at the kind of— I was speaking to a neonatologist the other day, and there really hasn't been a lot of innovation in that field in 20, 30 years because it's really difficult. One, it has a very high barrier of proof, as it should, right?

Yeah. Babies are hard. Yeah. You want to get nervous about women? Cool. But babies? Oh my gosh. Babies and kids are hard to think about.

Absolutely. So absolutely. I mean, how do, how do we balance that is a good question. How do you balance the need for innovation in that space with safety? You need to have a— yeah, exactly. Safety. Exactly. Exactly.

I get super nervous around even just having like, are you really using 2 kinds of birth control when you're in my trial? Because I just get nervous about someone being pregnant on a drug and we haven't done any of the teratogenic Right. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't do clinical trials without women. So it's just, it's a hard balance. So.

That's interesting. What do you think, Elaine? You know, how do we, how do we improve enrollment there? Yeah.

I think it has to be, well, from a minority perspective, let me tell you as a white woman what I have to say about minorities, but it's, I do think we have a lot of work to do on the trust side. I mean, clearly the medical industry has not been great to a number of different minority populations. And so I think, We have to build on the trust side first before we can even begin looking at recruiting and getting them into clinical trials. So that's a really, really hard, hard question that I truly don't have a good answer for. I do think that New Orleans, especially during COVID did a really good job of going out into the community and talking about vaccines and the importance of vaccines. I mean, New Orleans was an incredibly well-vaccinated city. I felt incredibly safe there because they had very high vaccination rates, which you can't always say for a lot of cities. So— So yeah, but with But with women, yeah, I think that we just kind of have to get over our fear of, well, they might get pregnant. Well, yes, it is possible, but men's sperm can also be affected by a drug too. And we're learning more and more epigenetics are just as, you know, important in terms of passing on traits. So at some point, you just got to take the leap, I guess. I mean, we are. So we're thinking about our MS clinical trial. MS happens in women 3 to 4 times more. So even though—

Absolutely.

We're relying on women to take the 2 forms of birth control or barrier protection, you know, that's— it's still really important to have them in our trial. So that's a lot of information, but let me put off my pontification hat. What else are you seeing in terms of innovation heatspots on the market, whether it's drugs or diagnostics or devices? What's— yeah, what's— or even what you're seeing in the clinic or that you wish you had?

Oh, oh, what I wish I had. Well, how long, how long do we have? I'm going to take it. I'll take a step back. And, and I think overall what we're seeing in the market, like what I'm seeing on the ground is, you know, if you look at the biopharma, we're getting, we're having some IPOs. There's a lot of companies with S-1s. There's acquisitions we mentioned, you know, in the obesity space, but it's not just in the obesity space. There was a big infectious disease acquisition. You know, a few love, love it.

And infectious disease.

Absolutely. Kind of a beatdown area, unfortunately. And so that's, that's good. There's, what's the term that finance people— green shoots. There's green shoots. You know, we're seeing those. We like those. And when the IPO market is relatively open, I don't know, the door's creaking open and then you have the acquisitions. Well, when those acquisitions come, they put more money back into investors' pockets and it can kind of get recycled in the system. And then If you look at the medtech side, which is, we have a majority medtech portfolio. And if you just look overall, it's over 10 years to exits in the medtech space. There's not a lot of early acquisitions. There's not a lot of early acquisitions. Most of the time you have to prove you have revenue, you have a sales force, you have to get all your trials done. Then you'll kind of gain either the public market's attention or strategic acquirers' attention. So it's a longer— Longer road, but there are, you know, it seems like there's people stepping into kind of this lack of a middle market, which is exciting. And, and then we've had some more IPOs this year as well in the medtech world. But you asked about HEAT specifically, but Elaine, you looked like you're about to ask a question.

Well, no, I'm just a little, I mean, I love, I love seeing the IPOs. I mean, that definitely is a good indicator that we're going to start seeing, we might see some more like loosening of the pockets. of the wallets of VCs. But I'm also— and the acquisition piece is where I get really frustrated, is because all I'm hearing from the pharma side is, come back after Phase 2. Someone said to me, I had both a VC and a pharma person tell me to come back after Phase 3. And it's like, get bent. I'm not going to even talk to you at that point. Hopefully, I'll be, you know, doing my own thing by the Phase 3. But I really wish pharma would step up and get into the acquisition game a little bit sooner. that the VCs will see the acquisition piece come sooner. So like, I mean, we kind of rely on IPOs, which I get, but at the same time, pharma has got to, I mean, they don't have early stage development in their hopper. They've shut a lot of labs down. So I just don't understand it. Sorry. That's just my rant. I'm just grumpy about it, I guess.

Yeah, no, I understand. Yeah. Yeah.

Because I would love to tell VCs as we're raising our own round of funding, like, hey, we've, once we hit this milestone that we'll be acquired, but that milestone isn't until After phase 2, that's a lot of capital to get there.

It's a lot of capital. It's a lot of capital.

So, pharma, get on it. I'm sure they're listening. They're taking notes. Okay, Elaine, thanks. All right, what else? Let's talk about where you pro— let's go instead of heat, let's talk about cold. Where do you think it's cold?

Oh, oh.

Chilly. Where is it chilly?

Where is it chilly?

Actually, like, where are you like, ugh, I don't want to see any more of XYZ.

OpenAI deals? No, I'm just kidding.

But the, uh, yeah, yes, absolutely agree.

The, or em dashes that are clearly written by AI in my email. That's the other thing. But anyway, the, uh, the, um, there's like this kind of, this is just off topic, but there's this kind of pendulum back towards like, what's it called? Authenticity. You know, you have like this, you have this swing towards the AI and AI is Tremendous. I mean, the amount, you know, but then you kind of have this.

Yeah. The number of times it debitches my emails, thank God for it. I still have a job. So.

That is enough. I'm like, wow, I misspelled 3 words and I sounded terrible. And then thank you. But anyway, so, so what's cold? It's actually funny. What's cold is early stage. And so, you know, I know, I know, I know, I know.

It is. You're right. No, but you're right. It is. It's cold and it sucks. out here in the cold, because that's my area. I love the preclinical, the Phase 1 stage. It's my bread and butter. I, I— if I'm working on humans, I've done my job wrong. I want to be able to do the handoff of, hey, we've done all of the IND enabling, here, big pharma, go take this Phase 1. But no, yeah, people are shying away from the preclinical, and it's frustrating.

Yeah, it is. And I'm sorry, as a VC that only invests in clinical stage companies, that Right. But it is, it is. I know, I know it is frustrating. I can see that because there's so much that has to be done in the preclinical stage and to be told, especially with what's happening with government grants, there's a lot of ambiguity there. We don't really know. There's a lot of ambiguity and non-dilutive funding. So then to be told like, well, come back after you've run your phase 3 with, you know, international and 3 different, you know, phase 3s and let us know, you know, is, is, and that's kind of hyperbole, but, you know, that's tough, but there is opportunity there both in the medtech And the biopharma, you know, if you're seeing those interesting companies early, there's not the kind of competition that, you know, there has been. Yeah.

Well, and I know that there's always a translation risk. I think we're seeing a little bit more prediction as we start integrating AI. And there's some better organoid models out there. I wouldn't say that they're great, but we're still, you know, we're starting to see a lot more sort of human iPSCs and that type of thing being utilized, but you still have to take the leap.

Mm-hmm.

And that the, the, you need money to take that leap. So it's just really hard, especially with the, the FDA now, quote, wanting to get rid of animal studies, which I would love to be there one day. I really truly would. We're just not there yet.

Right.

But at the same time, it's just like, yeah, I've cured a lot of mice of multiple sclerosis. It doesn't mean it's gonna cure humans of multiple sclerosis. So it's a big ask. So I get it.

Yeah.

Yeah. I get why it's cold, but some, point, you just gotta, you gotta take the leap.

So yeah, yeah, if only, you know, mice wrote checks, you know. If only. Only.

I mean, you could probably train them to, but it's not like they have a bank account.

So that's true. Yeah, there's a lot of infrastructure you'd have to do to get there, but it's— I hear you, I hear you.

Well, let's talk a little bit also about gene therapy and cell therapy, because I feel like that's such a roller coaster of a market. I mean, it's hot, it's cold, it's very Katy Perry. I don't It's, yeah, not ever— I hope that the listeners will have that stuck in their head the rest of this day, 'cause now I will. But it really is, especially with the safety issue, you'll have such great interest in gene therapy and gene therapy has a problem. It has a liver problem, right? And you'll have some serious safety signals that will come up with a clinical trial, which screeches everything to the halt, to a halt in, in gene therapy. I haven't heard a lot in cell therapy these days. I have to admit it, admittedly, I'm not in that world, so.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, it's a tricky market to try to read the tea leaves on, in my opinion.

So definitely we— Yeah, no, I think gene therapy has just been this roller coaster. I mean, you know, going back 20, 30 years and, you know, having this promise and then— yeah, yeah. I mean, I wasn't there, but what I've read—

No, but you probably actually learned CRISPR when you were in school. It wasn't a thing when I was in school.

So Yeah, no, it was right after. It was right after when it was kind of— yeah, but it's, it's really been up and down and there have been really hard and tragic clinical trial deaths. And, but then also some great breakthroughs. If you look at SMA and how you have this disease, and I'm going to get some of the details wrong, but you know, where the life course of that disease is very tragic. One, two, you know, death at 2 or. And now you have just tremendous impact. I think that's amazing. And you look at some other things they're doing with gene therapy or trying to do with gene therapy. I mean, actually—

Hearing loss is one. I mean, there's been some cool things done, a congenital hearing loss trial that's being done that, oh, I mean, to have a kid hear again, like, that's the dream. And that's also a good place to do gene therapy in that it's in the ear. You don't get the systemic exposure. So, you know, there are some still literal niches of being able to do gene therapy. But wow, I mean, the potential is still right there and some incredible things. Absolutely.

So yeah, but cell therapy is really interesting because like it has really good data on kind of the relapsed refractory lymphomas and these terrible diseases. I've talked to oncologists though, and one of the problems is patients die on the waitlist and there's this whole, you know.

Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, I think oncology is still one of the places where cell therapy obviously Totally. I'm hoping to see stuff on the diabetes side. That's always interesting. But yeah, maybe, I don't know if, I think I've heard some rumblings around the sort of neurodegeneration piece of it, but cell therapy's hard. I mean, it's hard from a business model perspective too. As you say, people are on the waitlist because it's not just like putting it in a pill and then shoving it into a bottle and shipping it out. So.

Exactly. Exactly.

You're going to be at JPM, I'm assuming.

I'll be at JPM. This will be my first JPM. And luckily I will listen to the Bio from the Bayou podcast prepping me for JPM.

Yeah, JPM is wild. I don't even know if you can get prepped for JPM. The— I was just talking about it with my co-founder who's going for her second time. And she's like, I had to go to a meeting in a hotel room. And like in grad school, we were told to never go to meetings in hotel rooms. Like, yep, it is different at JPM. So it's It's wild. I see your face. Yeah, get ready. Get ready. So literally there's hotel rooms that you can rent the suite out so you can do business meetings there. It's like, I kind of like it in some ways. I just want, hey, come to my room. But at the same time, I don't want people coming to my room.

Right. No, I don't either. No, I don't either.

Terrible. Yes. So if you're listening to this, you should, hey, come find us. We'd like to meet people. Absolutely. Friends of the pod. Not all friends of the pod can be co-hosts like Travis though. So just saying.

Years of dedication. Dedicated.

Campaigning.

That's right. That's right. That's right. Overnight success.

No. Slam dunk. Honestly, though, I feel like this is going to be— speaking of hot markets, I feel like this is going to be one of those podcast episodes that'll be most downloaded. I'm going to call it now. No?

No? All right.

Ian just sort of slightly nodded. Uh-oh.

It's a good one, but you can never call these things. It's hard.

Who knows?

It's very hard. Who knows what's going to hit? Who knows what's going to hit?

Yeah, you never know. You never know. That's kind of like what we've talked about in this podcast is, you know, you can do all the predictions you want to, but sometimes you never know what's going to hit. That's our takeaway for today. I think we have some good signals out there, some creaky doors to the IPOs opening up. My call to pharma to get into the preclinical space, that's me getting really close to the mic, and I hope that translates well. I'm cautiously optimistic for JPM this year. Famous last words. Not just because I get to see you, Travis, in real life. And I'll be wearing not stretchy pants, which is very rare for me. But so yeah, if you want to come hang out with us, please reach out. We'd love to meet you at JPM. And Trav, I'm sure you'll probably want to meet with Travis especially. He's the one that has money. So.

From everything I've heard, it's absolutely crazy. And a whirlwind and something a lot of people never want to do again, but then they keep going every year. So it's like a really weird paradox. So I'm excited to experience it. I have no—

I hate it. Let me be clear. I hate it with a passion of 1,000 fiery suns.

Yeah.

For one reason. I was gonna ask why. It's so expensive. It's, well, 2 reasons. It's so expensive to, to me, it always, I mean, hotel rooms are like $3,000 a night. Get real. But that makes it really impossible for a lot of startups to go, right? Because it's so insanely expensive. I mean, it feels very like elite in that sense. Like you're just the same people doing the same deals because they have the money. So, that's my little, I want it to be democratized, socialist plug here. But the other piece is, is that it's chaotic.

Mm-hmm.

And I want order. I want pers— I wanna know who I'm meeting at what time and Have it all laid out. That's why I like BIO partnering because, you know, it's speed dating that's very organized and that just—

And it's not like that at JPM? It's not like that?

Well, they are, they have moments of partnering. There, there is sort of at the main, the main conference they do have partnering, but everyone is like doing deals in lobbies. Like it's really those moments where you actually have elevator pitches. And so like the very thought of all that just makes my tummy rumble. I don't, my introverted heart is not excited, but I'll get through it.

Oh yeah.

I will. Yeah, I'll be pumped that you're there and I'll know someone.

It'll be nice. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. It'd be nice to see one person.

So we'll be excited to hear Travis again as he—

I'll be back.

Co-hosting more often. These are fun. Yeah, I like these.

Yeah, this is great.

Makes my job easy.

Yeah, and you can wear stretchy pants. That's true.

So that's good. Always.

Yeah, and you know, eventually Thanksgiving coming up here.

Yeah. Oh yeah, I got different pants for that, but these, but these Slow transition where I'm no longer the host and then you just take over. That's what I'm working on. Just, that's what James did. That's what happened with James. Yeah, he brought me in as a guest and then I became a host and then he left and then I'm the host.

The Trojan podcast. It's the Trojan podcast.

And we're just gonna bait and switch our audience. Yep. Get used to Travis. You better like him. It's happening.

Thanks for having me. And I look forward to—

The next one.

Yeah, to the next time.

As always, we'll put some nuggets into our show notes. All about Travis, his likes, his dislikes, so that you can beg for money from him at JPM. Just kidding, we're not going to do that. But check out our show notes to find some more information. And thanks for joining us at Bio from the Bayou. Thanks for joining us for Bio from the Bayou, and we hope you'll join us again. To never miss the latest updates in biotech, hit the subscribe button now. We'll catch you on our next episode of Bio from the Bayou. This podcast was edited by Resonate Recordings.