Here Comes the Booming Chinese Biotech Sector

Joe Weisenthal (0:00)

Hey, Odd Lots listeners, we're coming to DC.

Tracy Alloway (0:02)

We're finally doing it, Joe. It's gonna be our first live show in Washington DC, our nation's capital. It's also finally gonna be the time where we actually talk about the Jones Act.

Joe Weisenthal (0:13)

We've been talking about doing the Jones Act episode of Odd Lots for a long time, and it's become this recurring joke that we've never done. But we're gonna do it in grand style, because we're gonna be doing it live in DC, and it's actually gonna be a debate.

Tracy Alloway (0:28)

Yeah, so we have Sara Fuentes from the Transportation Institute. She's gonna be taking the pro side, and we also have Colin Graybaugh of the Cato Institute. He'll be taking the against side. It's gonna be really interesting to see how all of that shakes out.

Joe Weisenthal (0:43)

In addition to that, we're gonna be speaking with Blair Levin, who was around during the telecom bubble, and we have Andrew Ferguson, the new head of the FTC, the one who's replaced Lena Kong. We're gonna be talking about mergers and acquisitions and all that stuff. So it should be a really fun night.

Tracy Alloway (0:59)

If you want to come and join us for that evening, it's gonna be on March 12th at the Miracle Theatre. Go to bloomberg.com/oddlots, and you can find the link to purchase tickets. We hope to see you there.

Joe Weisenthal (1:14)

Bloomberg Audio Studios.

Tim Opler (1:16)

Podcasts, radio, news.

Joe Weisenthal (1:29)

Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Odd Lots Podcast. I'm Joe Weisenthal.

Tracy Alloway (1:35)

And I'm Tracy Alloway.

Joe Weisenthal (1:36)

Tracy, you know, we talk a lot about China, talk about cars and batteries. It's time for a Chinese biotech. It's time for the Chinese pharma episode.

Tracy Alloway (1:46)

Joe, it's just what I always wanted. Thank you so much. No, I am genuinely excited to talk about this. One reason is because this is a sector that I don't really know that much about. Another reason is it has actually been in the news quite a bit recently with the cuts to NIH funding, which we've discussed and things like that. And then more generally, it sort of sits in that nexus of policy aimed at boosting specific sectors and also competition between the US and China.

Joe Weisenthal (2:19)

That's exactly right. And it's like, you know, we've just gotten used to the fact that in many areas of sort of physical manufacturing, there are very, there are many industries in which China can compete and produce things either cheaper and higher quality, it seems like. Many areas relate to batteries and automobiles and all kinds of stuff like that. We know that. And then of course, we had like the deep seek moment and a bunch of people like, oh, it's not just physical things. It's not just gigantic plants. Also a lot of competition in areas like software, particularly artificial intelligence. That raised all sorts of questions. And then lately, the drum is beating that we have to take very seriously pharma and biotech. And this is one of those areas that I think most people, certainly me, would say like in the year 2025 still, my conception in my head is that the cutting edge is in the US and Europe still, which I can't say that for a lot of industries at this point.

Tracy Alloway (3:19)

I want to know how medicines are actually made and manufactured. I've read, a long time ago, I read a book about the Twinkie, and it broke down every ingredient that went into a Twinkie and where it came from. And it was really interesting because it turns out a lot of those ingredients came from China. I didn't know that.

Joe Weisenthal (3:38)

I didn't know that either. But you know what, I did know because we briefly touched on it in our recent episode with the two fellows from Goldman Sachs about China's role in the pharmaceutical supply chain providing key ingredients to India, which then plays a key role. Anyway, there's a lot I want to know. I don't think I know anything, and I just want to jump into this episode because I want to learn more. In that spirit, we really do have the perfect guest. He's someone who recently put together a slide deck, and I kind of think that slide deck catalyzed some articles. The deep-seek moment in biotech, got a lot of attention on social media. So we're going straight to the source. We're speaking with Tim Opler. He's a managing director in the Healthcare Investment Banking Group at Stifel. Tim, thank you so much for coming on Odd Lots.