Time Medical Participated in the 41st J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference

On January 9th, The 41st J.P. Morgan (JPM) Healthcare Conference 2023 kicked off its four-day run in San Francisco. This is the largest investment summit in the global healthcare industry, and notably the first in person conference in three years since the Covid-19 outbreak. The conference welcomed roughly 8,000 professionals, representing more than 550 leading biopharmaceutical, medical device and healthcare service companies, as well as medical investment institutions around the world. Time Medical (TM) was invited to participate in the conference, and company representatives included Professor Q.Y. Ma (CEO), Dr. Eric Gao (CTO), Gene Saragnese (Senior Adviser), Dr. Yuri Wedmid (SVP), and Julie Chow (MD).

TM representatives: Julie Chow, Gene Saragnese, Dr. Yuri Wedmid, Prof. QY Ma, Dr. Eric Gao

The first keynote speaker at the conference was Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPM. He talked about the current economy in the United States, the outlook of the healthcare industry, and the challenges faced by medical and healthcare companies. He mentioned that a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan in the US can range from $1,000 to $8,000. During the Q&A session, in response to this speech, Professor Ma said that through innovative technology and artificial intelligence (AI), future MRI scans can be reduced to only the price of ten cups of coffee. It will greatly reduce healthcare costs and enhance medical coverage. Jamie replied: “Digital Technology and AI will be the future for healthcare.”

JPM CEO Jamie Dimon’s speech

At the opening of the keynote session, JPM’s Global Head of Healthcare, Michael Gaito, mentioned that the financing environment for medical industry companies in 2022 was quite challenging, and investors paid special attention to balance sheets and business models. Looking ahead to 2023, he expects margin scale and balance sheet to continue to be very important themes, and sees innovation driving the healthcare industry. During the keynote session, Professor Ma, Gene met with Michael. Professor Ma introduced Time Medical as a company spun off from Columbia University and an innovative leader in medical imaging, and JPM Healthcare Asia team will be the lead sponsor for its listing in Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Michael congratulated Professor Ma and wished TM a successful IPO in the future.

On January 10th, the second day of the conference focused on medical technology, in which the CEOs of GE Healthcare, Siemens Healthineers, and Fujifilm Healthcare gave speeches.

GE Healthcare CEO Peter Arduini said: "Although inflation is serious, customers' demand for medical devices is growing strongly. We are seeing the supply chain environment continue to improve, and the industry outlook is optimistic. Looking forward, technological innovation and AI will be the key to the development of the medical imaging industry.” Peter pointed out that there are three strategies for the company’s development: i) to increase R&D investment, especially differentiated products and digital and AI technologies. GE Healthcare’s R&D investment from 2019 to 2021 has reached US$2.5 billion; ii) mergers and acquisitions (M&A), 4 companies have been acquired since 2020; and iii) strategic investment cooperation. Since 2020, 20 companies have completed equity investment and strategic cooperation. Peter further emphasized that M&A and strategic investment and cooperation are the main drives for the company's future growth.

Afterwards, Professor Ma, Gene and Peter had an in-depth discussion. GE Healthcare listed on Nasdaq on Jan 4th with its shares rising 8% on the same day. Professor Ma congratulated Peter on the success of the listing, and briefed the potential cooperation between TM and GE Healthcare MRI Division.

During the conference, Siemens Healthineers CEO, Bernd Montag, mentioned the company has unique resilience, which is mainly due to the foundation of globalization. Siemens Healthineers will expand existing markets through M&A and explore new markets in emerging countries/regions.

In the Q&A session, Bernd said that the 2020 pandemic did have an impact on the economy, but the medical industry has strong resilience. He indicated: “Economic recession is mainly an issue in the US. We see that many EU countries, China, India and other emerging markets are still growing." Professor Ma asked a question regarding this issue: "Medical and healthcare expenditures in many Asian countries have increased significantly in the past two years, for example India has more than doubled. How much will the revenue of Siemens Healthineers grow in Asia?" Bernd answered that the growth rate in Asia is 6-8%, and pointed out that with the lifting of China's pandemic restrictions this year, China's business growth rate will be higher.

Bernd, Gene, Yuri, and Professor Ma are old friends, and finally met up after three years of the pandemic.  Professor Ma and Bernd also discussed the potential strategic cooperation.

Keynote session at the conference

At the Jan 10th  keynote session, Professor Ma communicated with Dr. Renee Wegrzyn, director of APRA-H (second from left in the picture), and Dr. Robert M. Califf, Director of FDA (third from left in the picture), on the ultra-high-field brain science MR project.

On January 11th, Professor Ma and Amy Raimundo, Managing Director of the Kaiser Permanente Ventures in the US, discussed the breast MR mobile screening service project.

During the conference, the Time Medical team was also invited to participate in several events including the JPM Asia-Pacific reception, the dinner reception jointly organized by the Hong Kong Economic Development in San Francisco and Hong Kong Science Park, and China Night Event organized by M7 Global Biomedical Innovation Alliance.

Time Medical has significantly increased its visibility during this JP Morgan Healthcare Conference. The company not only had in-depth exchanges with the CEOs of global leading medical device companies, it also met with investment institutions from around the globe, which broadened the company's connections to the capital market in preparations for its public listing.