We are reporting to you from the JPMorgan conference in San Francisco where Ipsen and our portfolio company Albireo announced that Ipsen has made an offer to acquire Albireo

Portfolio company Zai Lab and its partner Novocure announced that the phase 3 study investigating their new therapy for late-stage lung cancer patients resulted in improved overall survival

Biotech companies are rapidly developing new technologies to treat previously incurable diseases.

From treatment of symptoms to cure. The number of genetic medicines that are so advanced in R&D that they are tested on humans has been increasing by an average of 27% per year since 2016.

Upward potential of portfolio further increased. The fund made a small positive net performance for the third quarter of 1,8%. Continuous poor market sentiment continued to depress share prices of our portfolio companies despite the present and expected future revenue and profit growth these innovative companies face.

Solid performance across portfolio. Due to a strong net performance of +13,2% since we published our NAV of mid June, the net performance of the fund for June ended at +8,8%.

Strong clinical study data delivered across the portfolio. Genetics technologies are increasingly being used in the development of innovative medicines. While in the beginning R&D in genetics companies was focused on (inborn) genetic diseases using cell, gene or RNA therapy, these technologies are now exploited in a much broader manner.

At the time of writing, Aescap Genetics has invested 71% of its assets under management in 18 companies.

The fund’s NAV fell 6.8% in the first half of March and then rose 10.8% in the second half. It seems that sentiment for biotech stocks has at least stabilized. The first quarter was a good period to include new companies in the portfolio.

The Year in Review and What is Coming Up.
Looking back at 2021 we saw sharp declining biotech share prices as of mid-February 2021 around the so-called ‘Turn out of Tech’.