Dealmakers seek to reset biotech clock at J.P. Morgan conference

As biotech companies and financiers focus on the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference — the most important industry confab for deal hookups — it is clear that the crazy days of unconstrained optimism have given way to a reality of mergers, acquisitions and sighs.
More than a quarter of the 43 Bay Area companies that presented at the conference in January 2008 have closed, been sold or merged over the past four years. What’s more, 17 of the 27 surviving publicly traded companies have seen their stock price fall, some more than 90 percent
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QB3 unwraps 'startup in a box'

QB3 is delivering a startup in a box, minus only the bow.
Working with banking and legal partners, the University of California’s link between life sciences companies and academic researchers is rolling out a new program — dubbed Startup in a Box — to move researchers-cum-entrepreneurs a step closer to their startup dreams. If all goes as planned, the program will launch 15 to 25 companies a year, said Douglas Crawford, associate director of QB3, or the California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences.
“It starts with, ‘I’ve got an idea’ to a well-functioning company,” Crawford said.