PERTH, Australia – The majority of medical device and biopharma industry respondents agreed that Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) responded effectively to COVID-19, but they want to see the agency improve its processes to act faster and with more clarity, according to the TGA’s annual stakeholder survey.
The 39th Annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference was sans Celgene Corp.'s annual tradition of kicking off the conference with preliminary revenue and earnings from the previous year, but plenty of other companies stepped up and offered preliminary results of their own. Unfortunately, some companies continued to face headwinds selling drugs during the pandemic as patients avoided their doctors' offices.
As the world begins to emerge from a horrific pandemic, armed with high-efficacy vaccines and a roadmap of lessons learned, it has become abundantly clear that dangerous infections are here to stay, and it is up to health care leaders and citizens to remain prepared and vigilant in preventing another deadly and disruptive COVID-19. During the last day of the virtual 39th Annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, two health care leaders discussed the efforts and mistakes experienced, as well as the path forward toward herd immunity and the unknown outbreaks to come.
With several deals and M&As falling within the highest values on record, 2020 turned out to be a solid year for the biopharma industry. Expectations are optimistic moving into 2021, when the U.S. will welcome a new president and its citizens should reach herd immunity from COVID-19.
The attention the COVID-19 pandemic drew to the biopharma industry, the ease and convenience of virtual meetings, as well as massive amounts of available capital, all led to an extraordinary year for financings in 2020. The momentum appears to be continuing, particularly with venture capital rounds.
A decade from now, 2020 likely will be considered a year like no other in terms of the massive amounts of capital raised amid a raging pandemic. Financing transactions of all types smashed records and in terms of volume hit 1,580, a total that was 42% higher than last year despite the serious disruptions to normal business operations.