Highlights of the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference 2012

There’s never a better way to kick off a new year than to join the mobs descending on San Francisco for the annual JP Morgan Healthcare Conference —especially after a year that saw its ups and downs. The place was teeming with investors trying hard not to think of the European financial situation; with companies in search of funding; with industry leaders, insiders and observers of all stripes. And every one of them networking furiously. It’s biotech’s version of mass speed dating. At JP Morgan, if you don't have an invite, you can still get in on the action. Lots of conversations happen on street corners, in wildly-packed hotel lobbies, and during receptions (over a glass or two) at some off-site venue.

Some of the highlights this year, official and not, included exciting announcements, progress on the Next Gen Sequencing front, and of course cost containment & acquisition plans for 2012.

Mixed news

First the good stuff. Noubar Afeyan, who was celebrating his nineteenth JP Morgan conference, looked jubilant after the announcement that Flagship Ventures closed Fund IV. At $270 million, Fund IV is the largest fund yet in the Flagship portfolio. Watching what he is doing with JOULE and with talented people like David Berry is just plain fun. Can't wait to see how he spends his money.  In more Flagship news, on Monday, one of Flagship’s portfolio companies that’s near and dear to my heart, BG Medicine, announced a new CEO: Eric Bouvier, PhD. It’s going to be an exciting place for Eric to be, as BG seems to be making true headway with its transformative galectin-3 and AMIPredict diagnostic tests.

Obviously, after a year like this, there was some gloom. Francis Collins named one of the elephants in the room, talking about decreased NIH funding (down significantly from nine years ago). The odds today are that new investigators only have a one in six chance of funding, as opposed to the one in three chance of years past. On the positive, Dr. Collins shared his excitement over the plethora of new discoveries made every day by scientists. He also described the objectives of the new NIH Institutes and the $140 million partnership between NIH and DARPA to develop a chip-based approach to drug toxicity testing. One growth area surely seems to be on the molecular diagnostics side, with Qiagen, Cepheid, Gen-Probe and others all launching new tests and/or platforms.

Next Gen Sequencing forging ahead

Another positive: As a big fan of the $1000 genome efforts, I was happy to hear about Life Technologies’ Proton Torrent announcement of the $1000 genome instrument. It was also great to see Illumina fired back with its instrument upgrade announcement. The latter was perhaps smaller news, but the larger story — that this is a technology space jumping with activity — is all good. One of the biggest buzzes seemed to be about the PacBio news that Hugh Martin is out and Mike Hunkapiller is now CEO. The word is that this is not as abrupt as it looks. Mike apparently has been working closely with the PacBio team for quite a while. And of course, Mike has a plan. We wish him the best of luck in his new capacity.

Tough 2011 but solid plans for 2012

Many of the presentations reflected just how tough last year was, with NIH grant scarcity and very cautious customers. But what struck me was how persistent, tough, and never-say-die this industry really is. Frank Witney, CEO of Affymetrix, gave his update about his company’s difficulties in the last half-year. Even with a 20% cut in R&D as a cost savings measure, however, he remains bullish about their CytoScan HD product.

Thermo also announced cost-savings programs. The $55M they save will offset reduced customer spending and NIH cuts. Perkin Elmer revealed that no new acquisitions will be made until they finish the Caliper Life Sciences integration. Fluidigm is focusing on expanding into new market segments including cell culture, molecular diagnostics, and protein expression as well as will be considering acquisitions in the future. All in all it seems that companies remain optimistic and continue to look for creative ways to be successful.

Taking a break On the personal side, one of the highlights of my JP experience this year was an unofficial Applied Biosystems (ABI) get-together that Linda Avey (cofounder of 23 & Me now CEO/founder of Curious, Inc) and I hastily planned. She’s something special, with entrepreneurial star power to spare and plenty of courage to shake things up. Makes me remember how fortunate I was to work with Linda and many of the others that were able to join us. What good friends I made: impressive professionals and wonderful people who work hard to make a difference in life sciences and human health.

Five Old-Fashioned New Year’s resolutions every bioscience worker should make.

It's been yet another roller coaster of a year in the bioscience industry: lots of excitement, but some real lows, too. PerkinElmer acquired Caliper, but announced layoffs. Pacific Bioscience, a high flyer early in 2011, is perhaps now plummeting to earth: it laid off 130 workers. Even the golden child of life science tools, Illumina, has had sluggish sales and recently announced it will shed 8% of its workforce. Sometimes it’s not easy to hang on, much less enjoy the ride.

Not surprisingly, I get many calls from people looking to find a new job in the short term and/or to optimize career options for the long term. They ask what they should do. My answer? “A lot.” Specifically, a lot of fundamentals. We may be doing work at the edge of the possible, folks, but the old-fashioned basics still really count — and it never hurts to be reminded of them. So here they are: the five old-fashioned resolutions every bioscience worker should make for the coming year. Along with visiting the gym more (and the soda machine less), of course.

Resolution 1: Do your job. As much as career concerns can loom, focus on your current work and do the absolute best you can. Be mindful of corporate goals and your manager’s needs — and just plain get things done. Ask for feedback and try to incorporate that feedback into your approach. Remember that most positions and companies have ups and downs. Sometimes patience and perseverance make a huge difference, sometimes moving on is best. But don’t let deciding between them interfere with your performance. And emulate Harry Truman’s buck-stops-here philosophy. Take responsibility. Don’t pass along problems – fix them.

Resolution 2: Look at yourself honestly. Set aside some time and systematically name your true strengths and weaknesses. Think about at which job you were happiest. What were you doing? One way to approach this task is to pen a five-page PowerPoint about your expertise, experience, and education. Include success stories and work products. Be specific. In these times, there are many people with "broad experience." Don't be afraid to show your domain expertise. Think of it as a quick way to introduce yourself – to yourself; even if you never present the PowerPoint directly to others, the activity itself will help you distill your professional essence in a highly communicative way and get clarity about what your next steps should be.

Resolution 3: Make new friends, and keep the old. We all get so focused on our own tasks that sometimes we forget to look up, see what’s going on in our industry and with our colleagues — even though knowledge and networks are critical to many career decisions. Subscribe to Genome News, attend local entrepreneurial events such as the MIT Enterprise Forum. If you are in San Francisco in January, network at the JP Morgan Conference. It’s a great opportunity to see new life science companies before they’ve made their splash, understand the community as a whole, and meet people who may be helpful. Reconnect with old colleagues. And while you’re at it, put down that sandwich you’re eating in front of the computer and make a lunch date!

Resolution 4: Help others. Make the effort. Introduce people to each other. When you hear of something that might help someone, pass it on. Go out of your way especially to assist those people who are unfortunately out of work. Remember — it can happen to anyone. Taking time to help another is not only the right thing to do, but may result in a helping hand if it’s ever your turn to need one. Stan Lapidus, CEO of SnyapDx, is a vocal proponent of this principle. It’s important, and it’s easier to follow than his other career advice (delivered with a grin, of course): “marry well.”

Resolution 5: Be grateful. We are all incredibly lucky to have chosen work in an industry that can directly or indirectly benefit to human health and well-being. Let's all make it count. As Francis Collins said in a recent interview, “[T]here has never been a more exciting time to get involved in biomedical research. This century, the 21st century, is going to be the time when we derive answers to questions that have vexed us for all of history. […] To be part of that process of discovery and application could be, I think, the most exciting way for somebody to spend their life.

Happy holidays to all, and to all a healthy, happy, and prosperous New Year.