Investing in biotech
High growth
The biotech market is a large and fast-growing market. The substantial growth of the biotech market, also called the life sciences market, is driven by an ageing population and an increased demand for ‘Western’ medicine in the emerging markets. But the most important driver of this sector is the pace of innovation. After 30 years of development, ground-breaking technologies such as RNA, gene and cell therapies are coming to the market which often allows for more effective and safer medicines.
Together with an ever-increasing understanding of human genetics and diseases, and with over 7000 rare diseases still without any treatment, we can expect the market for innovative medicines to grow steadily over the coming decades.
These factors together are driving demand for improved and cost-effective medicine, diagnostics and medical devices. Since there are more than 1000 public biotech companies it requires an expert in the field to select the companies that will beat their competitors.
Takeover premiums
Big pharma and biotech companies rely more and more on the acquisition of smaller innovative companies to fuel their product pipeline. The biotech sector is known for its attractive premiums paid in these takeovers. The average premium paid over the last few years was over 50% and although we never invest based on M&A rumours, the premiums we receive have added nicely to the performance of Aescap.
Specialized market
We believe that to be a successful long-term investor in public innovative medical biotech companies, one should understand all aspects of this complex market. Most of our team members have decades of experience in this sector which results in a deep understanding of the market and the threats and opportunities for individual companies.
Backed by an extensive network of medical and industry professionals, we invest based on high conviction which is known to be one of the key drivers for out-performance.
