This year’s J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference struck a different tone than previous years—a very pleasant one, despite higher security anxieties following the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO in December.
“It does feel like there's kind of more enthusiasm,” Takeda’s R&D president Andy Plump, M.D., Ph.D., told Fierce Biotech on Wednesday. “I have a motto, okay, which is ‘Own J.P. Morgan, don't let J.P. Morgan own you.’”
Plump mused that some of the enthusiasm could be attributed to the fact that this was the third year back post-COVID.
“A lot of negativity” had surrounded the event before COVID struck, Plump remembered, including complaints about the expense and “groups very publicly pulling out.”
The conference was put on ice during the pandemic, and people were initially “really anxious” when they returned. But this has started to fade, and the atmosphere has improved in subsequent JPMs.
“I think people are starting to realize that there's a lot of good things we can get done, there's a lot of interactions, relationships that we can nurture,” he added.
The unusually beautiful weather for the season—sunshine and mid-fifties each day—also may have lifted the general atmosphere.
“Every year that we have this conference, it's rained. This year it's been sunny, so there's a lot of people outside,” Nkarta CEO Paul Hastings, a San Francisco local, told Fierce. “You're seeing less people crammed into lobbies and elevator spaces and umbrellas and things—I just did an interview outside on Union Square.”
This J.P. Morgan was also the first since the shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in December, which has pushed several major companies in healthcare and beyond to tighten security measures.
While biopharma’s presence remained fairly stable at the conference, it was a different story for healthcare providers and insurers. Though UnitedHealth had already skipped out on the conference last year, they were joined this year by Cigna, Centene and Walgreens, who all pulled out.
The safety concerns were met by the city of San Francisco with a much higher police presence than previous years, including police dogs stationed outside the Westin St. Francis Hotel and security at every corner.
“I saw on the local news that the police force was told, ‘No PTO this week,’” Vaxart CEO Steve Lo told Fierce.

As Monday came to a close, around 20 protestors gathered outside the Westin with signs accusing the industry of putting profits above people’s lives. The police presence outnumbered the peaceful protestors and conferencegoers appeared largely unfazed, Fierce Pharma’s Angus Liu reported.
And then of course, there was First Lady Jill Biden arriving on-site to Fierce’s JPM Week, which no, is not the official new name of the J.P. Morgan Healthcare conference, but indeed our own conference that runs concurrently with the annual meeting.
Attendees for Fierce’s event went through airport-grade security to see FLOTUS, with a heavy Secret Service presence around the entire day.

While Biden acknowledged her time is coming to a close in a few short days (“But who’s counting?” she asked with a laugh), she said Tuesday that she’s still going to continue her work around women's health.
"Women are waiting for better answers to improve their health, and the potential in this space is too great to ignore," Biden said.
To hear the full presentation, register for Fierce JPM Week's virtual conference, held from Jan. 22 to Jan. 24. Admission to the virtual event is free.