Investors and the financial media have been fixated on exchange-traded funds for decades. The inexpensive passive tracking of stock indexes often has led to a performance that traditional active money managers have been hard-pressed to match. But there are always exceptions, and the healthcare sector is one of them.
All investment returns in this article are net of expenses and assume the reinvestment of dividends and capital-gain distributions. Annual expenses for the Janus Henderson Global Life Sciences Fund total 0.98% of assets under management. The expense ratio for SPY is 0.095%; it is 0.35% for XBI. The rest of the fund is roughly split between pharmaceutical companies and providers of healthcare devices and services.
He also pointed to Intuitive Surgical Inc. ISRG, +0.08%, which is employing AI and algorithms to help doctors predict the outcomes of surgeries. “They can make a good surgeon even better, by tailoring the approach to the best outcomes, whether it be prostate removal or orthopedic procedures, Lyons said.
There are three companies whose stocks are held by the fund that Lyons believes “can really help with this condition over time.” He also named Akero Therapeutics Inc. AKRO, -4.78% and 89bio Inc. ETNB, -4.31%, which are both developing injectable therapies to remove liver scarring, which “will be important therapies to add on to the Madrigal therapy, to help patients avoid losing their livers over time.”