BNP Paribas’ Moneer explains bull case for biotech on The BioCentury Show

Zahid Moneer sees M&A, PE bringing light to ongoing bear market

There’s been an “unprecedented range of enthusiasm for biotech” since the annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco in early January, Zahid Moneer, senior managing director of investment banking at BNP Paribas, told The BioCentury Show.

Moneer, who is more upbeat than many in today’s biopharma sector, sees capital raises from million-dollar seed rounds to nine-digit series A, B and C rounds “turbo-boosting” the sector in parallel with M&A activity.

Another trend bringing new energy into the market, Moneer said, is the willingness of pharmas to play at earlier stages of biotechs’ life cycles, coupled with investors looking to deploy capital into those companies “to ride on that wave.”

In the interview, he also details how private equity firms have increased their activity in the biopharma space, calling Bain Capital’s private equity buyout to separate Mitsubishi Tanabe from its long-time parent a “landmark deal.”

“It really ticks all the boxes from a PE perspective on the stability of the cash flows.”