Fund manager Janus Henderson has launched the Janus Henderson Global Life Sciences Equity Fund OEIC.

The fund is an extension of the fund manager's global life sciences strategy which launched 20 years ago.

It will invest in companies worldwide that are addressing unmet medical needs or aim at maintaining or improving quality of life.

Janus said the new fund aims to outperform the MSCI World Health Care Index by at least 2% per year.

It will be available to UK retail, wholesale, and institutional investors and will be managed as part of the existing Irish and US Mutual vehicles.

It will be managed by Andy Acker and Dan Lyons.

Mr Acker manages Janus' health care sector research team and has been managing the global life sciences strategy since 2007.

He said: "Unique to the healthcare sector is the disparity of returns between the best performing stocks and the worst – it is the widest of any sector. At the same time, large biopharmaceutical and managed care companies can offer steady returns amid periods of market volatility, thanks to their stable free cash flows.

"Our Global Life Sciences team – whose members include a practicing physician and analysts with biomedical PhDs – focuses on understanding both the science and commercial opportunities throughout the sector. This combination of expertise and experience makes our team well equipped for this highly complex and dynamic sector, as we aim to provide both growth and capital preservation for investors."

Janus Henderson is a global active asset manager with approximately £260bn in assets under management worldwide. It is headquartered in London and has 2,000 employees.