A week later: I have been revitalized and am sitting comfortably in my office at Ferghana Partners in New York. I have written 50 meeting memo?s and have cultivated some very interesting new business. H&Q 2006 was an incredible success! Looking back on the conference, I think 2006 is poised to be an incredible year in the biotechnology industry: I am excited to do business and so are others. Although it is tougher for companies to go public?valuation expectations have been tough to swallow

With the conference winding down, you can clearly feel the change in emotion throughout the halls, lobby and conference rooms of the St. Frances. What was once a vibrant and high energy crowd is now a dwindling group of tired and emotionally drained individuals. To navigate through the H&Q conference successfully, one needs stamina, good shoes and a strong posture. Call it coincidence, but the majority of companies I met with on Thursday were in the CNS field. My conclusion: The majority of

My time has been spent in ?Europe.? In the last two days, I have been to Italy four times, London and France each twice and made brief stops in Germany and Switzerland. The series of meetings that I have had with European companies has caused me to come to the conclusion that companies in that region are undervalued, undermanaged, underappreciated and unhappy with the lack of availabe capital. The companies are therefore looking to gain additional investor support from US venture capitalists. At

A beautiful day in San Francisco and although many of the meetings at this year's H&Q conference seemed to spill into the streets surrounding the St. Francis Hotel, with men in suits or casual attire mingling in groups of two and three on the sidewalks, the lobby and hallways of the Hotel are still packed full of industry executives looking to make things happen. That's right, my first impression of this year's conference, and perhaps indicative of what's to come in 2006: people want to do deal

Every January, the movers and shakers of biotech come to the Westin St. Francis in San Francisco to see and be seen, exchange information and move money by funding companies and forming partnerships and other alliances. Thousands of bankers, analysts and company executives mix and mingle at JP Morgan's Annual Healthcare Conference (often still called the H&Q), setting the tone for the year in biotech. Those attending the invitation-only conference go to the company presentations and meet in hall