the biggest healthcare industry conference of the year opened monday with a wave of announcements and partnerships but no blockbuster biotech acquisitions that could be a disappointment to investors who had been hoping for a busy 2022 for biotech ma the sector performed miserably last year and into early january the first morning of the jp morgan healthcare conference is often a stage for big pharmaceutical companies to unveil major deals on the first day of 2019’s conference for example eli lilly ticker lly announced the 8 billion acquisition of loxo oncology nothing like that has happened yet on monday morning “with the biotech sell off accelerating in the first week of january the lack of any ma at jpm is unwelcome news for anyone long the space” jefferies healthcare equity strategist will sevush wrote in a note to investors early monday while investors hoping for a big biotech acquisition may be disappointed there has been plenty of healthcare news announced to coincide with the start of the conference here are some highlights so far   perhaps the biggest news came sunday when the biotech bmrn announced new data from a phase 3 study of its gene therapy to treat severe hemophilia a the company said that the study had met all primary and secondary efficacy endpoints and that the annualized bleeding rate in patients had been reduced by 85 analysts cheered the news in notes out sunday with piper sandler analyst christopher raymond writing that the gene therapy now looks “not just fileable but commercially compelling” investors agreed and biomarin shares were up 56 in premarket trading   as barron’s reported earlier momday pfe and the biotech beam announced a 13 billion deal to develop three treatments for genetic diseases beam shares were up 5 in premarket trading while pfizer shares were up 03   medical device firm mdt announced the acquisition of a private medical technology company called afera which makes tools used in cardiac procedures financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed medtronic shares were down 05 in premarket trading   shares of eqrx the newly public pharmaceutical company seeking to make cheaper copycat drugs to compete with brandname therapies announced a memorandum of understanding with cvs which owns the health insurer aetna according to eqrx the two companies will “work together to support access to and adoption of eqrx’s two lead oncology products” among other things eqrx shares were up 79 in premarket trading   pharmaceuticals acad announced a deal with another biotech stok to develop rnabased medicines to treat genetic neurodevelopmental diseases of the central nervous system including rett syndrome under the terms of the deal acadia will pay stoke 60 million upfront with potential milestone payments of up to 907 million