Polar Capital, the specialist investment manager, has launched a global biotechnology fund using an open-ended UCITS vehicle.
The fund will be managed by David Pinniger, a recent for Polar Capital's specialist healthcare investment team and is the latest addition to the firm's existing healthcare investment strategies.
The investment objective of the fund will be to achieve long-term capital growth by investing in a globally diversified portfolio of biotechnology companies. The manager will use a fundamental research-driven approach to construct a portfolio of between 40 and 60 investments, with performance benchmarked against the NASDAQ Biotechnology Index.
The fund is available in sterling, US dollar and euro-denominated share classes. The annual management charge is 1.5% on the retail share class and 1.0% on the institutional share class.
David Pinniger said: "We believe the global biotechnology industry is poised to deliver significant value creation over the coming years driven by a major new innovation cycle. It is our view that the sector's stock market resurgence in recent years could be just the start of a multi-year re-rating as this high growth global industry comes of age.
"Advances in information technology - in particular increases in computer processing power - are enabling medical science to make rapid advances in understanding the complex biology of health and disease. In recent years we've also seen a proliferation of tools and technologies that are enabling new ways of targeting the molecular basis of disease.
"The era of personalised medicine is now upon us. The ability of healthcare professionals to deliver the right treatment, to the right patient, at the right time is helping to transform the effectiveness of healthcare delivery throughout the world. The highly innovative products being developed by biotechnology companies are playing a central role in this exciting new era."
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David Pinniger has over 13 years' investment experience in the healthcare sector and joined the Polar Capital healthcare team in August 2013 from SV Life Sciences where he was manager of the International Biotechnology Trust for five years. Prior to SV Life Sciences, David spent three years working at venture capital firm Abingworth as an analyst managing biotechnology investments held across the firm's venture and specialist funds, and four years at Morgan Stanley as an analyst covering the healthcare sector.
Founded in 2001, Polar Capital currently has 93 employees of whom 46 are investment professionals managing 22 funds, and 7 managed accounts. These funds have combined assets under management of $11.4bn as at 30 September 2013. The Company is AIM quoted following its Initial Public Offering in February 2007. Some 36% of the equity is currently held by directors, founders and employees.