Welcome to Day 2 of the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference 2025 in San Francisco. Yesterday saw some high-value dealmaking, including one of the biggest acquisitions in recent JPM memory, when Johnson & Johnson snapped up neuro biopharma Intra-Cellular for a cool $14.6 billion.
On the clinical side, we saw GSK shell out just over $1 billion for gastrointestinal cancer specialists IDRx, while Eli Lilly, flush with its Mounjaro cash, paid $2.5 billion for Scorpion Therapeutics.
Check out Fierce Biotech’s conference's kickoff coverage here for the full lowdown from Day 1, and go here for Fierce Pharma's Day 2 tracker.
We’re straight back into the action on Tuesday and on the lookout for more M&A, research deals and gossip from the floor. Check out all the the latest news below...
Tuesday 12:00 p.m. ET Jan. 14
Novartis’ chief executive Vas Narasimhan told the J.P.M audience that the investor community’s main question put his company is: “How do you grow post 2031/32?” He joked that “it’s an honor as a CEO sitting in 2025 to have to worry about 2032,” but makes a pitch to investors that Novartis has “the most exciting pipeline” in the industry, given that it is made up of 29 NMEs that will continue the Novartis story into the next decade.
That breaks down into 14 phase 2 and phase 3 assets, as well as 15 phase 1 drugs, made up of a diverse set of targets from cancer, cardiovascular disease and immunology to rare diseases and neurology.
Tuesday 11:30 a.m. ET Jan. 14
Big Pharma should “run towards” conversations about vaccine efficacy, GSK CEO Emma Walmsley told an audience at JPM.
The sector should adopt a “wait and see” approach to the ongoing “commentary on vaccines,” Walmsley said. The CEO made the remarks as part of a wide-ranging response to a question on what the incoming Trump administration could mean for GSK—one of the world’s largest vaccine manufacturers—and pharma more generally.
“There is categorically no better return on healthcare budget, and no better intervention in public health, than stopping disease before it starts, than keeping people out of hospital,” the CEO continued.
“Any debate or questions around the efficacy of vaccinations, the quality of vaccinations is one we completely welcome,” Walmsley said. “I think we need to run towards these conversations with transparency and trust.”
Tuesday 3:00 a.m. ET Jan. 14
When asked last night about the incoming Trump administration and potential nominee RFK Jr.—chair of the anti-vaccine organization Children’s Health Defense—Vaxart’s Chief Medical Officer James Cummings, M.D., said: “It’s the box of chocolates thing; you don’t know what you’re going to get until it happens.”
Vaxart’s mission is to deliver vaccines against common viral infections, such as COVID-19 or the flu, in pill form.
“This is a partnership with the people out there, right?” Vaxart CMO Cummings continued. “Let's give them good, solid data—clear data … Bottom line is, vaccines save lives. And there could be some bumps in the road, but I'm taking a very practical view of let's see what it looks like as it evolves.”
As norovirus cases surge across the country, Vaxart continues to work on developing an oral vaccine for the sickness. And the biotech is betting big on the potential convenience an oral option holds. CEO Steve Lo compared it to the decision to get a coffee.
“I'm more likely to get a coffee at Starbucks if I can order it on my app and walk in and grab it, versus, okay, I walk in and there's a long line,” Lo explained. “It’s the same thing with a vaccine. I've got to schedule an appointment. I've got to check in, have to wait, versus the convenience of getting the pill from your mail-order pharmacy.”
“My kids would probably call up Uber Eats and say, ‘Hey, I'd like my chocolate shake. A bottle of water. Oh, and maybe I'll have that vaccine for COVID sent to me,'” Sean Tucker, Ph.D., Vaxart’s senior vice president and chief scientific officer, added.