Biotech Deal Surge Dials Up Buzz at JPMorgan Health Conference

The world’s biggest drugmakers are racing to buy up biotech companies to fill looming holes in their pipelines and pounce on new discoveries, bringing a hopeful buzz back to JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s big health-care conference in San Francisco.

“Opening new markets like obesity is adding optimism,” said Victor Bulto, president of the US unit for Novartis AG on the sidelines of the JPMorgan Healthcare Conference, which draws the heads of the world’s biggest drug companies who use the annual confab to broker multibillion-dollar deals.

The renewed energy in biotech, which has been pummeled in recent years, applies ...