Medicine. Science. Technology.

Artificial limbs; genome sequencing for targeted treatments; drug delivery systems for diabetics; new skin for burn victims; 3D-printed rib cages — only twenty years ago, these medical marvels sounded like science fiction. But thanks to the remarkable advances in the biotech field, they are a reality today. The potential for this burgeoning field are limitless as are the investment possibilities. BBIA believes that as results are proven and regulatory barriers are removed, the demand for these biotechnical products will skyrocket and become virtually universal — and widespread demand permits the development of mass production technologies.

Whether the final product is an FDA approved drug, a genetic therapy, or a cell based treatment, all of the steps in the process of going from biology to idea to product are accelerating exponentially. Thoughtful, extensive, and continuing research leaves us confident that the gains and growth in the biotech sector are not a flash in the pan but rather the opening up of a long bullish period of secular growth and permanent expansion. The IMF has decreased its forecast for global growth to 3.5% for 2019 and 3.6% for 2020, but we believe the world economy has  strong opportunity to return to a more synchronized growth if most new trade tariffs are removed within the next 18 months. Low unemployment, low inflation, a favorable interest rate outlook, and significant US earnings growth all support continued growth for US equities. This permissive economic backdrop comes at a time when specific biotechnologies–including in 2017 the first two personalized immunotherapies for cancer and the first FDA approved gene therapy–are producing novel curative treatments at an accelerating pace. It is an exciting time for the biotech sector.

The cost and time required to extract information from a biological system has dropped dramatically – over a million times – since 2000. Connectivity and mobile devices enable easy collection of medical data for studies and facilitate follow-up with patients. Drugs that once had to be tested one at a time in a petri dish may now be excluded by the hundreds of thousands through computer simulation. In the past, a potential brain drug would have taken five years to test in the lab. Now, a thousand petri dishes are filled with living brain tissue grown from a human skin cell permitting the pharmaceutical company to test its entire portfolio of drugs all at once on, say, a model of human Alzheimer’s.

The potential of emerging technologies is creating new markets quickly. BBIA has identified long-term investment opportunities — particularly in regenerative medicine, immune therapies, and genetics; and more broadly in the growing value of biological and medical data itself.

a. Stem Cells: Clinical trials have begun to produce positive results in everything from Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD) to Parkinson’s, ALS and the aging process.

b. Immune Therapies: The incredible potential of immune-based therapies to treat cancer has been demonstrated definitively and already some of these therapies are being called cures for specific kinds of cancers such as blood cancers.

c. Genomics: The immediate and powerful consequence of this technology is to allow models of disease to be created far more quickly which greatly accelerates drug discovery and development.

Because of the real-world, life-saving impact that many of the advances in biotech are having, these companies are receiving much attention and getting significant funding. Investors are excited to participate in the dramatic transformations of health already under way. Many existing biotech companies are significantly undervalued in terms of the potential revenues of the specific diseases they are aiming to treat and we see great opportunity. BBIA is also keenly interested in what will be a new field of defeating diseases through preventative care and therapies and several firms such as Google have committed to making significant long-term investments in this area. 

We believe the fields of preventative and regenerative medicine are presently where aviation was 100 years ago–the first planes are already in the air. The core technologies to enable flight are here, and they have now progressed to a point where they are proving their worth through useful application. Like the promise of air travel biotechnology has the potential to redefine the ideas we have about the possibilities of life. We believe the demand, and following that the supply, of biotechnology will end up surpassing even the success of aviation  in the transportation markets.

Simply put, health is a product with  universal demand. We are at the birth of an explosion in the possibilities for human health and for biotechnology. Welcome aboard. 

Investment in biotech has real value. Biotech is helping us improve our health and our lives. Greater connectivity and ease of data collection will continue to aid research and allow individuals to become far more engaged in their own health and well-being. Investing in something that benefits not just us but our family, friends and the world as a whole is the right thing to do – and it’s a great investment! It is a profitable choice and it is the right choice.