Insulated from drug-pricing pressures
While concerns about potential negative impacts of US drug-price legislation may weigh on the market for the time being, we anticipate that small- and mid-cap biotechs will continue to be a relative safe haven, compared to their big pharma counterparts. Provisions of the US Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA) effectively created a system of mandated price reductions for certain drugs; however, cuts to net realized prices — post discounts, rebates, etc. — may be more benign than feared. Moreover, the focus of cuts will likely remain on legacy pharmaceutical products for years to come.
This situation could create another indirect tailwind for smaller biotech players, as larger pharmaceutical companies that see profit declines from their legacy products should have added incentive to fill those shortfalls via M&A. Finally, many biotechs stand to benefit from the law’s caps on patients’ out-of-pocket expenses, removing a major barrier to utilization of higher-priced drugs.
Widening sector dispersion and supportive valuation
Active investors have benefited from the rebounding dispersion of stock returns within the biotech sector. Since the recent lows of 2022, the performance differential between top- and bottom-decile stocks within the SPDR S&P Biotech ETF, a proxy for the biotech market, has widened (Figure 3). Attractive industry valuations further enhance the favorable environment for active biotech investors, in our view, with the same biotech ETF trading at a 40% discount to its early 2021 peak, as of 30 September 2024. Coupled with strong upside potential from market leaders, widening dispersion underscores the value of experienced active investment management, which can potentially increase the opportunity to achieve significant positive returns for clients.