At a satellite kickoff event to the annual BIO meeting, investment bankers and VCs gave reasons for optimism amid a ‘volatile’ period for the industry.
For biotech companies that have come to BIO 2025 seeking partners, there’s reason for optimism. “The buy side is here in force,” Greg Benning, head of investment banking at Back Bay Life Science Advisors, said at a pre-conference satellite event Monday.
Every single person BioSpace spoke with in advance of the panel said it was the partnering meetings that had brought them to the conference, which pulled to Boston more than 20,000 biopharma professionals from around the world.
But as the panel got underway, the optimism was balanced with a realistic conversation about the headwinds currently facing the industry. “Has anyone noticed that American policy is a little volatile?” panel moderator, Back Bay CEO Jonathan Gertler, joked to kick off the discussion.
At the highest level, Jim Cirenza, head of equity capital markets at DNB Bank, spoke of an overall slower economy and dwindling government spending, which he said was no longer the tailwind it had once been. Even as consumer sentiment improves—with last week being the best in six months, Cirenza said—“sentiment is better than the market.”
And then, of course, are all the overhangs introduced by President Donald Trump’s rapid-fire policy changes. Jeff Quillen, co-chair of the life sciences industry group at Foley Holag, called out the massive cuts at the Department of Health and Human Services, with the FDA, CDC and NIH collectively losing about 25% of their workforce.
Benning echoed that as a major headwind for the industry, combined with budget cuts levied across research universities. “That’s brutal,” he told BioSpace after the panel. He predicted that the uncertainty rippling through industry as a result of Trump’s policy moves will continue through this year and perhaps into 2026.
Benning pointed to Project 2025 as the best roadmap for understanding the current administration’s plan, rattling off a list of initiatives predicted by the conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation that have already played out.
Quillen noted that this is unfolding at an already challenging period for the biopharma ecosystem. The last few years have been characterized by “triaging” companies within existing investment portfolios—choosing companies that should be allowed to fail while “drip feeding” capital into others. This has come with layoffs and fire sales of assets that companies might prefer to develop further before licensing in a more profitable deal. “There’s really not much interest or bandwidth to look at brand new companies,” he said.
Mergers and acquisitions specifically have shrunk 25% from last year, Quillen said, “and last year was pretty anemic, so that’s disappointing.” He added that discussions are still taking place but parties are having difficulty agreeing on prices.
But as much as the conversation featured the many obstacles challenging progress in the industry, there was still optimism. At one point, Gertler gently steered the conversation back toward positivity with a joke about TACO—Trump Always Chickens Out. He chuckled, referencing the 90-day pause on tariffs. He also referred to New York Times reporting that Trump may back off appeals of some of the cases he’s lost regarding immigration enforcement.
“That is possibly a hopeful sign in these crazy times.”
