SAN FRANCISCO — On the first day of the JPMorgan Healthcare Conference, a small group of demonstrators gathered in a corner of Union Square, directly across from the conference’s main venue, the Westin St. Francis Hotel.
It was made up of a variety of members, including musicians, medical workers, and teachers. Steve Seltzer, a labor journalist and organizer, addressed the group and held up a placard that read “No more denial, delay, or abandonment,” and said last month that former UnitedHealthcare chief executive Brian Thompson He alluded to the words engraved on the shell casing that was found when he was shot. in New York City.
Many of the demonstrators were playing music and chanting slogans, but one demonstrator crossed the street and continued to shout slogans and expletives at JPM participants as they entered and exited the meeting. The spittle from his mouth glistened in the crisp Northern California air. He remained behind a small barricade in front of the hotel entrance, and attendees and conference security watched him with surprise and curiosity.
JPM is one of the world’s largest healthcare conferences, known as the summit for important health and pharmaceutical deals, investments, and announcements. For the most part, that hasn’t changed this year, but reminders of Brian Thompson’s murder are everywhere, from Monday’s demonstrations outside the Westin Hotel to the small security detail tailing medical executives every step of the way. It was there. The San Francisco Police Department has assigned a dedicated police force to conference areas, and JPM has added more private security on-site this year, according to people familiar with JPM’s new security protocols.
“Most of the CEOs here today have had to make changes in their lives because of what happened in New York,” Terry Shaw, outgoing CEO of nonprofit health system AdventHealth, told STAT. “You don’t drive home the same way every day. When you go somewhere, there used to be no security, but now there is.”
Several large publicly traded health insurers and other healthcare companies also declined to attend the JPM conference this year, including Cigna, Humana, and CVS Health. Stephen Hahn, CEO and partner at Flagship Pioneering and former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, said the absence of these large companies had a depressing effect on companies hoping to get commercial coverage for their products. said.
“They’re a big component of the ecosystem. I’ve heard a lot of people talk about this, and it’s worth noting. For people who are currently on the commercial path, this is a big That’s a problem,” Hahn said. “It’s sad to me that something like that happened and why it happened.”
If not, JPM will give such companies an opportunity to demonstrate how their products, whether medical devices or new drugs, can benefit patient care and the health system. “This is an opportunity to show how we can coordinate appropriate care and appropriate management of health resources and funds,” he said.
But participants generally told STAT they did not feel personally targeted by protesters or ordinary Americans who expressed anger and outrage at the health care industry in the wake of the Thompson shooting. Ta. Protesters like Zeltzer did not come to Union Square to promote violence, but rather to send a broader message to the health care industry that they feel the American system is broken. He said he was thinking about it.
“I do not condone Luigi’s actions,” Zeltzer said, referring to Luigi Mangione, who was charged with Thompson’s murder. “Killing the CEO won’t change the health care system in this country. It’s an expression of the anger and frustration that people have,” he told STAT. “It’s not one company, it’s not a hedge fund, it’s not a bank. The whole industry is based on profits. That’s what we’re saying is the problem.”
Attendees said the increased security around the conference sparked a discussion about inequity, access, and cost in the U.S. health care system, as well as Americans’ dissatisfaction with health care. Many said they echoed the message the protesters outside the Westin wanted to send.
“From my perspective working in small-scale biotech, we are working to develop new cancer treatments. We have an amazing team who are dedicated to their lives,” said David Earp, CEO of Circle Pharma, a biotechnology company focused on developing new technologies to treat cancer and other diseases.
“I don’t want to be negative about what’s going on in the broader context,” Earp added. “There are certainly inefficiencies in the system, and the more we investigate the causes of them, the more opportunities we have to fix them. I think everyone should welcome a discussion about why this is difficult.”
Dan Morissette, chief financial officer of CommonSpirit Health, a Catholic nonprofit network of 140 hospitals, told STAT he believes the system needs more trust from the public. “This is a complex health care system that we have, and it includes drug companies, payers, health care providers, and device manufacturers,” he said. “We all want to make things better and more efficient across the board.”
AdventHealth’s Shaw’s annual revenue is 21 billion dollarssaid he believed it might be better to redirect the public discontent expressed after Thompson’s murder.
“People are very frustrated because they can’t get the care they want with their health plan,” Shaw said. “It actually has little to do with me. It’s your employer who provides your health insurance.”
But when STAT pointed out that hospitals were charging prices that insurance companies ultimately paid and passed on to consumers, Shaw said his system negotiates commercial rates and that Medicare and Medicaid He said we need to adopt what we have to offer. “You can have good insurance or you can have bad insurance. If you have bad insurance, I understand the frustration in today’s environment,” Shaw said.
The addition of armed security and police reminded many of a different environment in the United States, some participants told STAT: the country’s easy access to firearms and gun violence. Edwin Stone, a British-born CEO of Cellular Origins, a small biotech company, said it was always “disturbing” to see a law enforcement officer wearing a weapon on his or her waist. .
In an interview Thursday toward the end of the conference, Stone said that inside the hotel, beyond the security check and the outrageous discussions about health care, the conference roared with “the usual wonderful chaos.” spoke. Billion-dollar deals were made, investments were announced, new drugs and science rumors made headlines. Many in the industry seemed optimistic that the biotech market would finally recover in 2025 after years of weakness, and there was some temporary excitement.
Bob Herman contributed reporting.
