Is this the start of the thaw? In the aisles of the forty-second health conference, the annual high mass of the biotech sector organized by the investment bank JP Morgan, which was held in San Francisco (California) in early January, the question was on everyone’s mind. the lips. “ It is the event that sets the temperature for the year to come. All the bankers, investors, Big Pharma and biotechnology companies are flocking there. Needless to say, we were impatiently waiting for it”confides a French participant who has just returned from the United States.
This edition, the first day of which began with two important announcements – the acquisition of the biotech Ambrx by J & J for 2 billion dollars (1.83 billion euros), and that of Harpoon Therapeutics by the MSD laboratory for 680 million dollars – has precisely caused the thermometer to rise, which, since the end of 2021, has continued to sink into polar temperatures. Enough to warm up the atmosphere, even if the signs of a rebound remain tenuous. The traditional crop of acquisition announcements ultimately proved modest compared to its most auspicious moments. But, after more than two years of famine, few risk being choosy.
In fact, 2023 proved to be particularly harsh for the sector, which had to face a drastic drop in funding. “ Money became scarce everywhere. It’s been a hell of a year for the sector », summarizes Bernard Gilly, head of the companies GenSight Biologics and BrainEver, and co-founder of the start-up iBionext. The fault, explains the entrepreneur, is inflation and rising interest rates. “ The particularity of biotech is that you work for years without any income. It is therefore vital to refinance regularly. Faced with market reluctance, some companies have opted for debt refinancing, but at insane rates, sometimes between 15 and 20%. »he explains.
“Apnea sector”
On the stock market, the flight of investors caused company prices to fall, to the point that some of them found themselves at valuation levels lower than their cash flow. As for those which went public despite the economic situation, the situation is hardly more glorious. In the United States, barely half of the 19 new arrivals on the Nasdaq, the New York Stock Exchange index, including the French company Abivax, which raised more than 220 million euros on this occasion, saw their price stock market to increase at the end of 2023.
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