UBS publicized an anticipated attendance of 3,000 investors which may be difficult to produce with attention easily diverted by the market swings and lack of appetite to invest. Attendance Monday was sparse in the morning with an increase peaking with a standing- room-only attendance at the 2:00 pm Pfizer presentation. The audience listened intently looking for some favorable news from this industry giant. Ian Read, President of Pfizer’s Worldwide Pharmaceutical Operations, gave a reassuring talk that Pfizer was doing its best to remain strong and produce the future revenues worldwide that stockholders depend upon. But then when the Dow indicator reached a 370 point loss and the price of oil at $120 per barrel (the largest one-day price increase in history) appeared on the MS NBC financial news screen in the major hall outside the presentation rooms, the attendance returned to low morning levels.

It wasn’t surprising that expectations were low as attendees went through the motions of listening in on some private and public companies talks that appealed to them or from whom they wanted to hear reassurance on their pre-existing investments. There wasn’t any of the excitement that marked meetings in previous years. In fact, the high drama of the day was the Hoffman La Roche, Ltd presentation in the morning. Curiosity about the implementation plans for Roche’s buyout of the remaining 40% of Genentech and Roche’s access to sufficient funds dominated the questions in the packed Roche breakout session. The audience seemed sadly resigned to the outcome anticipated by the Roche speakers Dr. Jean-Jacques Garaud, Chief Medical Officer & Head of Global Drug Development, and Dr. Karl Mahler, Head of Investor Relations. Genentech presents at the conference on Wednesday.

This week’s four-day conference includes over 300 companies in biotechnology, genomics and discovery tool, medical technology and pharmaceutical fields. It has been one the largest annual life science investment meetings on the East Coast rivaling that of JP Morgan’s (former “H&Q’s” January meeting in San Francisco.