J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference 2025: Acquisitions, innovations, and impressive achievements

The J.P Morgan healthcare conference kicked-off with a bang when J&J announced the USD 15 bn acquisition of depression drug company Intra-Cellular Therapies (held across multiple Bellevue funds). Another proposed deal in the psychiatry space was the takeover offer from Biogen for Sage Therapeutics, although this has yet to be agreed. While we did not get the anticipated obesity-related biotech acquisition, multiple large biopharma management teams reiterated their interest in the space.

Biopharma tend not to preannounce at the meeting unless needed. Therefore it is not surprising that the announced Q4 results updates were skewed to the disappointing side (Eli Lilly, Regeneron, and Moderna). Although continued strong launches of innovative products drove positive updates from Argenx and SOBI. 

In contrast, we saw some positive clinical program updates (for example: Galderma in facial fat loss; Merck subQ Keytruda timeline),  and business updates (Merck long-term oncology sales outlook increased by USD 5 bn; Lonza Vacaville site progress). 

A particular highlight for us was the opportunity to speak to the CEOs of Teva and Sanofi about the recent results from partnered drug duvakitug (TL1a) in gastric disorders, and were encouraged about their confidence in the data and potential breath of the opportunity. 

Overall,  we noted positive sentiment from industry executives regarding sector prospects and particularly innovation, despite what has been a tough period of political headlines. 

As expected, we saw great medtech quarterly results preannoucements that exceeded investor expectations. The highlight was Intuitive Surgical's announcement that robotic placements were up 23% and procedure growth was up 17%, sending the stock up 8% on the day of the announcement. The pre-announcements and our interaction with the management teams clearly confirm that the growth in medical procedures is at a very high and solid level.

Innovation is the key success factor, which was particularly evident in our meeting with Boston Scientific CEO Mike Mahoney. It's amazing what a difference in business performance R&D investment can make, even for a top 5 global medtech company. With its FaraPulse pulsed field ablation (PFA) offering, the company has gone from zero to 20% market share in less than a year and is very likely to reach 40% by the end of 2025. Even more impressive is the PFA product pipeline to be launched in the next two years, which should enable the company to grow significantly faster than its direct competitors over several years.

We have also seen some major acquisition announcements, such as Stryker's acquisition of Inari, and met several IPO candidates. The J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference was a very positive confirmation of the excellent position the medtech sector is in and the potential for above-average value creation for shareholders in 2025.

We hold Intra-Cellular in Bellevue Diversified Health, Bellevue Biotech (CH) and BB Biotech AG. BB Biotech AG holds Sage in the portfolio. Intuitive Surgical is one of the biggest holding in Bellevue Medtech & Services and Bellevue Digital Health.