Fear and loathing in Union Square: Upcoming biotech conference exposes industry dreams, issues

As the drug-development industry's most important dealmaking conference hits San Francisco's Union Square next week, Paul Hastings is livid. Attracting upwards of 20,000 people in biotech, health care, venture capital and investment banking, the 38th annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference rolls into town representing an industry bloodied and fearful of election-year battles around drug pricing. What's more, those visitors' attempts to line up multimillion-dollar deals, pay out $1,000 a night for hotel rooms or spend $100 or more to talk to a prospective partner on a hotel lobby couch are juxtaposed against a city overcome by its homelessness crisis.