AescapInvesting in Medicine
Aescap invests in high-growth companies that develop and market highly innovative medicines.
Aescap 2.0
Aescap 2.0 is an open-end biotech fund with around €200 million under management that exclusively invests in the shares of publicly traded biotech / life sciences companies. It invests in high-growth, highly innovative companies that develop and market new medicines and, to a lesser extent, diagnostics and/or medical devices. Entry into and exit from this biotech fund is possible twice per month.
The biotech market is a large and fast-growing market where breakthrough medicines can be sold globally. The substantial growth of the biotech market, also called life sciences market, is driven by a longer life expectancy (especially in the emerging markets) as well as an ageing population. Both factors are driving demand for improved and cost-effective medicine, diagnostics and medical devices. There is also still a high unmet medical need for diseases like Alzheimer’s, Arthritis, Cancer, Diabetes, Multiple Sclerosis (MS), Obesity, Parkinson’s and many other diseases. Today for approximately 6,000 rare diseases there is still no cure or treatment at all available.
Performance
Our net performance, since inception on March 28th 2016, is +110,2%, which is 1,9x that of the Nasdaq Biotech Index.
Get in touch
Our monthly presentation for interested investors currently is replaced by a webcast. The next webcast will be held on November 26th at 15.00. During the webcast our investment philosophy as well as methodology are discussed by the portfolio manager.
Strategy
Aescap 2.0 has a focused portfolio, investing in around 18 public biotech / life science companies. Most of the companies in our portfolio are based in Europe and the US. Our investment decisions are based on ‘high conviction’, fueled by thorough research and fundamental analyses. In the biotech sector such an analysis especially encompasses product portfolio patent protection, product development risks, market entry barriers, competition and the expected market development. But equally important are the serious efforts we undertake to understand the strengths and weakness of a company’s management, team dynamics, and their view on the future of the company and the markets they serve.
Aescap Team
Patrick Krol, portfolio manager
Patrick joined Aescap at its start in 2005 when it was active as a biotech venture capital fund. Patrick has been a private investor in public equity for over 30 years. Building on his track record as a private investor in public biotech companies , outperforming the Nasdaq Biotech Index over 2,5x, he founded Aescap 2.0 early 2016. As a co-founder of Firm United Healthcare he was responsible for growing the company into a market leader on the European continent and guided over 35 listed pharma and biotech companies to successfully introduce or grow their products.
Maurits Brand, analyst
Maurits Brandt holds a Master’s in Life Science and Business Development from Leiden University and a Bachelor’s in Biochemistry from Leiden University and TU Delft. During his master he specialized in the field of medical oncology and focused on the business aspects of exploiting emerging technologies. He performed his research on the Technische Universität Berlin. During this time, he started to learn about the aspects of long term investing in life sciences companies. Maurits joined Aescap 2.0 as an analyst in 2016.
Paolo del Bufalo, analyst
Paolo Del Bufalo obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry at La Sapienza University of Rome after which he completed two Master tracks at Leiden University, one in Chemical Biology Research and one in Science Based Business. Throughout his academic research career he focused on supramolecular chemistry and photochemistry for applications in medicinal chemistry. During his business studies, he acquired knowledge to combine his scientific background with the business environment, particularly with value investing. Paolo joined Aescap 2.0 as an analyst in 2018.
Tristan Maguet, Analyst
Tristan Maguet holds a Pharm.D from the University of Grenoble Alpes and a MSc in Management from ESSEC Business School in Paris. During his pharmaceutical studies, Tristan specialized in the biotechnology industry and led a project where he went through all stages of development and registration for human growth hormone. Tristan developed his knowledge in the healthcare industry during his internships at Aescap 2.0 as an analyst and at venture capital fund Andera Partners in their BioDiscovery franchise as a biotech and medtech analyst. Tristan joined Aescap 2.0 as an analyst in 2019.
Michiel de Haan, Fund Advisor
Michiel de Haan has been active in life sciences since 1987 when he spun-out Atlas Venture from the ING bank. Under his leadership Atlas developed into a European-American venture capital firm with offices in Amsterdam, Munich, Boston and London and invested in over 300 venture backed companies in Information Technology and Life Sciences. Michiel has been active on numerous boards of Life Science companies such as Crucell and Morphosys.
Bo Jesper Hansen , Portfolio Advisor
Bo Jesper Hansen, M.D., Ph.D. resigned as the Executive Chairman of the Board of SOBI AB (Swedish Orphan Biovitrum AB) in 2016. SOBI is a biotech company listed on the Swedish stock exchange and at the time had a market capitalization of around 3,5 billion euros. He is Chairman of Karolinska Development AB and is also non-executive Director of the biotech / pharma companies Ablynx NV, Orphazyme ApS, Newron Pharmaceuticals SpA, CMC AB and Genspera Inc. Dr Hansen served as CEO and President to the Board of Swedish Orphan International (1998-2010) until the merger with Biovitrum, forming Swedish Orphan Biovitrum.
Fred Oudshoorn, Portfolio Advisor
Fred Oudshoorn is the founder and managing director of Jonghoud BV, an investment firm in amongst others, equity of private and listed healthcare companies. As a pharmacist he built a chain of 40 pharmacies “De Vier Vijzels” which was later acquired by Alliance Unichem. He is also a founder of MediZorg, the former chairman of Sinensis Laboratoria and supervisory board member of Kadans and Kadans Science Partners. Mr Krol and Mr Oudshoorn first met in their function as supervisory board members back in 2012 and soon discovered their mutual activities in investing in public innovative medical companies.
Gert Hoogland, Portfolio Advisor
Gert Hoogland, M.D., MBA (INSEAD) is a pharmaceutical executive with deep operational experience. He began his career in 1982 as Medical Advisor to Organon NV in Oss, The Netherlands, followed by CEO positions for Schering AG in New Zealand and South Africa. He then founded Pharmaplan Pty Ltd in Johannesburg, which became the leading specialty pharma distributor in Africa representing biotech companies like Biogen, Bracco, Recordati, Ipsen, Genzyme and Shire. After the sale of this company to the Canadian Specialty Pharma company Paladin Inc., he relocated to Zurich to start HealthCrest AG, a healthcare investment and consulting company.
5-star rating
Morningstar has rated Aescap 2.0 as a 5-star investment fund, the highest possible rating given. Morningstar’s rating has become the industry’s leading standard for determining a fund’s performance (risk/reward) relative to other funds. To rate a fund, Morningstar takes into account the long-term performance (3+ years) and only the top 10% best performing funds will receive a 5-star rating.
See Aescap on Morningstar
Latest News
Aescap 2.0 – Acquisition of Portfolio Company Myokardia
Just after we sent out our Q3 newsletter, we received the news from our portfolio company Myokardia that it will be acquired by big pharma player Bristol Myers Squibb for $13.1 billion in cash. This offer of $225 per share represents a 61% premium from the closing share price last Friday.
Aescap 2.0 Quarterly Update Q3 2020
We would like to see our NAV going up nicely every month, but history shows that is not how it works. While achieving a +71% net outperformance against the market (NBI), fluctuation is inevitable. This is further illustrated by the graph below. The decline of 11% over Q3 is partially due to the weakening of
Aescap 2.0 Quarterly Update Q2 2020
The fund’s net performance over the second quarter was +22,2%. The sector is regaining interest from generalist investors and this might be the start of a broader inclusion of public biotech as a fixed position in their investment portfolios, as well as those of wealth managers.