2023 was another particularly tumultuous year for life sciences and, although the lingering effects of the last year are unlikely to change dramatically, the stabilisation of interest rates (off 16-year highs) and emerging direction of travel (market data points) tilt our bias to positive for the new year.
Stock markets love investment concepts, calling the robust ones ‘megatrends’. Golden ageing is one such megatrend banking on the fact that business can extract more from people living longer. Such megatrend investments help – up to the moment when rising interest rates crash the party.
Inflation has rebounded with a vengeance from its pandemic-induced recession lows. The US headline inflation rate surged to levels not seen since Ronald Reagan’s presidency, while the Eurozone’s Harmonised Index of Consumer Price (HICP) rose to the highest level in its entire 30-year lifespan.
From its all-time high in August 2021 the largest and most important index for the biotech industry also in Europe (NBI) lost around 25%. After a period of excessive capital inflows, money is much harder to come by these days. The answer can only be more creativity in structuring deals.
Biotechnology was dramatically rewarded in the financial markets through much of 2020 and the first half of 2021, widely credited for providing the COVID-19 vaccines. This followed four already exceptional years in the financial markets, with the Nasdaq Biotech Index (NBI) hitting its all-time high of 5449.32 on 30 August 2021.
Healthcare has long been considered one of the most reliable defensive sectors – an effective portfolio buffer when equity markets turn volatile. That’s because hospitals, drug makers, medical device firms and other companies across the healthcare sector benefit from steady consumer demand – still true?