Investment policy

Worldwide Healthcare Trust PLC invests in the global healthcare sector with the objective of achieving a high level of capital growth.

Investment objective and policy

In order to achieve its investment objective, the Company invests worldwide in a diversified portfolio of shares in pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies and related securities in the healthcare sector. It uses gearing, and derivative transactions to mitigate risk and also to enhance returns.

Investment approach

The Company‘s Portfolio Manager is OrbiMed Capital LLC. OrbiMed was founded in 1989 and has evolved over time to be the largest dedicated healthcare investment firm in the world. OrbiMed has managed the Company’s portfolio since its launch in 1995. Strong returns and many investment awards signify the aggregate talents of this exceptional team.

OrbiMed had over U.S.$20 billion in assets under management as of 31 March 2021, across a range of funds, including investment trusts, hedge funds, mutual funds, and private equity funds.

The OrbiMed team works constantly to identify sources of outperformance with a focus on fundamental research. In healthcare, there are many primary sources of outperformance, especially in therapeutics. Clinical events such as the publication of new clinical trial data is a good example and historically has been the largest source of share price volatility. Regulatory events, such as new drug approvals by U.S., European and Japanese regulatory authorities are also stock moving events. Subsequent new product launches are carefully tracked and forecasted. Other sources include legal events and, of course, mergers and acquisitions activity.

The Team has a global focus with a universe of coverage that covers the entire spectrum of companies, from early stage companies with pre-clinical assets to full integrated biopharmaceutical companies. The universe of actively covered companies is approaching 1,000.

OrbiMed emphasises investments in companies with underappreciated products in the pipeline, high quality management teams, and adequate financial resources. A disciplined portfolio construction process is utilised to ensure the portfolio is focused on high conviction positions. Finally, the portfolio is subject to rigorous risk management process to moderate portfolio volatility.