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SAN FRANCISCO — It seemed like there was a point during last year’s J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference when we all collectively realized, “Oh, 2023 is going to be another slog.” Indeed, a downturn has weighed on the biotech industry for nearly three years.

But this January, things feel different. Maybe it’s the abundance of sunlight that filled San Francisco this week. More likely, it’s the surge of deals that came in December. Whatever the reason, sentiment around Union Square in recent days was markedly more positive this year.

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Most everyone I spoke to this week noticed the change in tenor. “I’m feeling a lot of good energy, honestly,” Mira Chaurushiya, senior partner at VC Westlake Village BioPartners, told me Tuesday. “It’s not only what happened the last few weeks of the year, but what people are projecting moving forward.”

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