In the Run-Up to JPM 2026, Foreign Biotech Looks to Settle in the U.S.

As I prepare for the JPM Healthcare Conference in January 2026, I find myself reflecting on the conversations I'll soon be having. During the conference, I will be hosting several biotech clients with investors – facilitating introductions, discussing capital strategies, and exploring what a move to the United States might look like for companies at various stages of development. The question I hear most often from these clients is simple: Is now the right time? After reviewing the data and speaking with colleagues across the industry, I believe the answer is an emphatic yes– and the reasoning deserves a fuller explanation.

In the gleaming laboratories of Boston's Kendall Square and the venture capital offices overlooking San Francisco Bay, a quiet consensus has emerged: the American biotech market has reached a rare inflection point. After two brutal years of correction—when IPOs plummeted 93 percent and startup valuations cratered—the landscape has fundamentally reset. And for foreign companies eyeing U.S. expansion, the current moment represents something increasingly precious: a window of genuine opportunity.

The numbers tell a compelling story. By late 2025, total U.S. life sciences employment hit a record 2.1 million positions, yet growth has moderated to sustainable levels—a sign the sector has shed excess capacity while retaining its core talent. Series B funding, the critical growth stage for scaling operations, has roared back with vigor. In the first half of 2025, Series B+ activity led venture deployment at $6.3 billion across 104 rounds. Third-quarter venture funding surged 70.9 percent compared to the previous year.

But here's what makes this moment different from the frothy days of 2021: the money is smarter now. Series B companies only cross the $150 million valuation threshold with compelling clinical data, not speculative promise. For foreign biotechs with solid science but previously uncompetitive valuations, this rationalization has leveled the playing field.

Recalibrating within the industry

The biotech correction of 2022-2024 was painful but necessary—a purging of excess that has left the industry leaner, more disciplined, and paradoxically more welcoming to newcomers. The speculative froth has evaporated. What remains is a market that rewards substance over hype, clinical results over PowerPoint projections.

This shift matters enormously for foreign companies considering U.S. entry. During the boom years, American biotechs commanded eye-watering premiums simply by virtue of their domestic pedigree. Today, that premium has compressed. A European or Asian company with differentiated science can now compete on more equal footing, accessing U.S. capital at valuations two to three times higher than what's available in home markets.

"The window may close within 24 to 36 months. Companies waiting for 'perfect' conditions may find the opportunity costs of delay exceed the risks of entry."

The regulatory landscape offers its own peculiar alchemy of risk and reward. The FDA under its new leadership has signaled intentions to reduce approval times significantly, particularly for rare disease drugs that may receive conditional approval based on "plausible mechanism." This represents a potential paradigm shift for early-stage companies with limited clinical data. The agency approved 38 new medicines through November 2025, with 14 designated as orphan drugs—a category where foreign biotechs often concentrate their expertise.

Acquisitions are coming

Perhaps no factor makes the current moment more compelling than the acquisition frenzy reshaping the industry. Deal values surged 36.7 percent in the third quarter of 2025 to $43.2 billion. This isn't speculative buying—it's strategic necessity. Major pharmaceutical companies face patent cliffs threatening more than $200 billion in annual revenue. They need innovative assets, and they need them now.

The shopping list reveals clear priorities: Sanofi paid $9.5 billion for Blueprint Medicines; Genmab acquired Merus for $8 billion; AbbVie spent $2.1 billion on Capstan's in vivo CAR-T platform. The year's largest deal—Johnson & Johnson's $14.6 billion acquisition of Intra-Cellular Therapeutics—underscored the premium buyers will pay for neuroscience assets.

For foreign biotechs, this translates into a straightforward calculus: U.S.-based assets command higher multiples due to established regulatory familiarity and market access. Companies that establish American operations—even without full commercial infrastructure—position themselves as attractive acquisition targets.

What about China?

Geopolitics has handed foreign biotechs an unexpected gift. As of 2024, roughly 74 percent of U.S. biopharmaceutical companies depend on Chinese manufacturers for preclinical and clinical services—a supply chain vulnerability that Washington has targeted through proposed tariffs and policy initiatives. The "great American pivot" in pharmaceutical manufacturing has created three distinct advantages for companies establishing U.S. presence.

First, federal initiatives including the National Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing Initiative have allocated $3.5 billion to domestic capacity. Second, pharmaceutical companies are actively seeking non-China suppliers to de-risk their pipelines. Third, U.S.-based manufacturing assets now trade at 15 to 25 percent premiums in M&A transactions.

The window for exploiting this advantage is finite. National security analysts warn the United States has approximately three years to establish insurmountable domestic capabilities before China's biotech ecosystem becomes competitively entrenched. That timeline concentrates the mind.

The industry's path forward

The infrastructure to support biotech expansion is already in place. Amgen's new $1 billion biomanufacturing facility in North Carolina and Fujifilm Diosynth's $3.2 billion contract manufacturing plant exemplify the capacity buildout. For foreign companies, this creates flexible entry options—from virtual models leveraging contract manufacturers for capital-light entry, to hybrid approaches establishing R&D and regulatory functions while outsourcing production, to full integration in established hubs like Boston, San Francisco, or the Research Triangle.

The risks are real but manageable. FDA resource constraints may extend review timelines—mitigated through pre-submission meetings and meticulous documentation. Drug pricing pressures persist, requiring robust health economics strategies. Tariff policies create cost uncertainties that U.S. manufacturing addresses directly. Competition for talent remains fierce in hub markets, though secondary cities offer cost advantages.

For early-stage companies, the playbook is clear: establish U.S. R&D presence in a hub market to access talent and partners, engage the FDA early through pre-IND meetings, and focus on orphan or breakthrough therapy designations to maximize valuation. For Series B and later companies, the priorities shift toward U.S. clinical trials generating FDA-familiar data packages, CDMO partnerships for manufacturing, and building boards stocked with American pharma veterans to facilitate acquisition discussions.

The time to act is now

The convergence of rationalized valuations, renewed capital flows, strategic buyer urgency, and policy-driven manufacturing incentives has created conditions that may not recur for years. The three-year competitive window identified by national security analysts adds strategic urgency. Companies that establish U.S. operations by 2026 will capture first-mover advantages in the domestic manufacturing renaissance and position themselves as prime acquisition targets.

Those waiting for perfect market conditions may find the calculus has shifted by the time they act. Patent expirations peak between 2025 and 2030, maintaining buyer urgency—but as large pharma fills pipeline gaps, acquisition appetite may moderate by 2027.

For foreign biotechs with differentiated science and disciplined execution, 2025 represents not merely a good time to enter the American market. It may be the last optimal window for the foreseeable future. In biotech, as in biology, timing is everything.