International Biotechnology Trust (IBT) is a long-established specialist fund investing in listed (c 90%) and unlisted (c 10%) companies in the high-growth area of biotechnology. After several years of strong absolute returns, the past six months have seen a sell-off in the sector, arguably sparked more by political pressure and investor risk aversion than by company fundamentals. While a resumption of bull market conditions is uncertain in the near term, the demographic factors and scientific advances underlying innovation in the sector remain favourable. IBT aims to outperform the benchmark NASDAQ Biotechnology index and has done so in NAV total return terms over one, three and six months, one and three years and since lead manager Carl Harald Janson took over in September 2013.
