Emerging Markets Healthcare Strategy
A specialist sector strategy targeting long-term healthcare investment opportunities in emerging markets
Inception DateMay 2024
IndexMSCI Daily Total Return EM Net Health Care USD
Strategy Overview
Investment Objective
The Strategy aims to achieve long-term capital appreciation by investing in a portfolio of healthcare companies which are domiciled, have their origin from, or exercise the predominant part of their economic activity, in emerging markets.
Investment Philosophy
The investment philosophy of the Polar Capital Emerging Markets Healthcare Strategy is driven by a focus on five major themes which will drive long-term demand:
- The size of the population within the investment universe, which is growing, is greatly underappreciated
- Growth in income levels and wealth is leading to demand for better healthcare provision and access to latest medical breakthroughs
- Increased government spending on healthcare and the formation of robust insurance markets drive access and therefore returns potential
- Innovation gap between Developed and Emerging Markets healthcare is narrowing across all healthcare subindustries
- Emerging Markets productivity is capturing Developed Market learnings to design and develop efficient healthcare systems which can generate significant investor returns
The portfolio will be geographically diversified, invest across a range of market capitalisations and in any healthcare subsector.
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Key Facts
- A specialist sector Strategy run by an expert healthcare team leveraging institutional emerging markets expertise
- The team has 145 years of combined industry experience
- Typically 35-45 positions
- High conviction and actively managed with a quality bias across over 40 countries
- No benchmark or tracking error constraints
- Fundamentally-driven analysis and stock selection
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Strategy Availability
- UCITS Fund
- Separate Account
Management
Brett Pollard, PhD
Co-Lead Manager
Gareth Powell, CFA
Co-Lead Manager
David Pinniger, CFA
Portfolio Manager
Deane Donnigan, PharmD
Portfolio Manager
James Douglas, PhD
Portfolio Manager
Damiano Soardo, CFA
Investment Analyst
Leanne Smith
Investment Analyst
Tara Raveendran, PhD
Consultant - Healthcare Research
Brett Pollard, PhD
Brett joined the Polar Capital Healthcare team in September 2021 and has 22 years of healthcare industry experience, 13 of which have been in healthcare investing.
After completing a PhD in Molecular Virology at the University of St. Andrews, Brett worked as a healthcare research analyst, covering stocks in pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device and healthcare service subsectors. In 2008, he cofounded an in vitro diagnostics business where he initially led corporate and business development before taking on the role of Chief Operating Officer.
After time spent in strategic advisory services, Brett moved back into corporate development and investor relations’ roles before joining the Polar Capital Healthcare team. His extensive industry and investment experience has allowed him to rapidly build up detailed coverage of the healthcare sector in emerging markets.
- Studied cell and molecular biology at the University of St. Andrews; PhD in molecular virology.
- PhD
- 14 years
Gareth Powell, CFA
Gareth joined Polar Capital in 2007 to set up the Healthcare team. Prior to Polar Capital, Gareth worked at Framlington, where he began his career in investment management in 1999. Soon afterwards, he joined the Healthcare Team in 2001 and helped launch the Framlington Biotech Fund, which he managed from 2004 until his departure.
Gareth studied biochemistry at Oxford, during which time he worked at Yamanouchi, a leading Japanese pharmaceutical company (later to become Astellas). As well as this, Gareth worked for the Oxford Business School and various academic laboratories including the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology and the Wolfson Institute for Biomedical Research.
- MBiochem in Biochemistry, University of Oxford
- CFA Charterholder
- 26 years
David Pinniger, CFA
David joined Polar Capital in August 2013 as a portfolio manager within the Healthcare team. Prior to joining Polar Capital, David was portfolio manager of the International Biotechnology Trust at SV Life Sciences.
Previously, David spent three years working at venture capital firm Abingworth as an analyst managing biotechnology investments held across the firm's venture and specialist funds, and four years at Morgan Stanley as an analyst covering the European pharmaceuticals and biotechnology sector.
- BA (1st Class Hons) in Human Sciences, University of Oxford
- CFA Charterholder
- 24 years
Deane Donnigan, PharmD
Deane joined Polar Capital in June 2013 and is the Lead Manager of the Polar Capital Healthcare Discovery Fund.
Prior to joining Polar Capital, Deane began her career at the Medical College of Georgia, before becoming a clinical specialist in Drug Information and Adult Internal Medicine with Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia. After several years, she moved to the UK to join Framlington (now AXA Framlington) as an analyst for the healthcare unit trust, led by Anthony Milford. She went on to become lead portfolio manager of the Framlington Healthcare and Framlington Biotechnology funds. Deane is both a US and UK citizen.
- Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD), Clinical Pharmacy, University of Georgia in conjunction with the Medical College of Georgia
- Board certified and licensed pharmacist, ACCP board certified pharmacotherapy specialist, IMRO qualified
- 27 years
James Douglas, PhD
James joined Polar Capital in September 2015 and is a Portfolio Manager for the Healthcare team. He was appointed co-manager for the Polar Capital Global Healthcare Trust in August 2019.
Prior to joining Polar Capital, James worked in equity sales specialising in global healthcare at Morgan Stanley, RBS and HSBC. James also has equity research experience garnered from his time at UBS, where he worked as an analyst in the European pharmaceutical and biotechnology team. Before moving across to the financial sector, he worked as a consultant for EvaluatePharma.
- PhD and BSc (1st Class Hons) in Medicinal Chemistry, Newcastle University
- ACCA diploma in financial management (DipFM)
- 25 years
Damiano Soardo, CFA
Damiano joined the Polar Capital Healthcare team as an investment analyst in October 2020. He started at the company in 2016 as part of the Operations team before moving to the Risk team in 2019. Prior to joining Polar Capital, he worked as a technical consultant at a fintech company. Damiano has an MSc in Mathematics and Foundations of Computer Science from the University of Oxford and is a CFA charterholder.
- MSc in Mathematics and Foundations of Computer Science, University of Oxford
- CFA Charterholder
- 8 years
Leanne Smith
Leanne joined the Polar Capital Healthcare Team as an Investment Analyst in October 2024. She started at the company in 2021 in the Client Services team as part of the Investment 20/20 scheme.
- BA in Cells and Systems Biology from the University of Oxford
- Passed level I of the CFA
- 3 years
Tara Raveendran, PhD
Tara joined Polar Capital in September 2021, as a consultant focused on independent research for the team. Prior to joining Polar Capital, she was the Head of Healthcare & Life Sciences Research at Shore Capital.
Previously Tara spent over 15 years working in equity research, specialising in European pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and medtech at Lehman Brothers and Jefferies. She has also worked with a number of healthcare-focused startups through her life sciences consultancy, SSquared Consulting, most recently working with the UK government’s Vaccine Taskforce.
- BSc in Biochemistry and PhD in Structural Biology from Imperial College, London
- PhD
- 18 years
Risk Considerations
Risks:
- Capital is at risk and there is no guarantee the Strategy will achieve its objective. Investors should make sure their attitude towards risk is aligned with the risk profile of the Strategy.
- Past performance is not a reliable guide to future performance. The value of investments may go down as well as up and you might get back less than you originally invested.
- The value of a Strategy’s assets may be affected by uncertainties such as international political developments, market sentiment, economic conditions, changes in government policies, restrictions on foreign investment and currency repatriation, currency fluctuations and other developments in the laws and regulations of countries in which investment may be made. Please see the Strategy’s Prospectus for details of all risks.
- The Strategy may enter into a derivative contract. The Strategy’s use of derivatives carries the risk of reduced liquidity, substantial loss and increased volatility in adverse market conditions, such as failure amongst market participants.
- The use of derivatives will result in the Strategy being leveraged (where market exposure and the potential for loss exceeds the amount the Strategy has invested) and in these market conditions the effect of leverage will magnify losses. The Strategy makes extensive use of derivatives.
- If the currency of the share class is different from the local currency in the country in which you reside, the figures shown on this webpage may increase or decrease if converted into your local currency.
Important Information: This website is provided for the sole use of the intended recipient and is not a financial promotion. The Polar Capital Emerging Markets Healthcare Strategy (the “Strategy”) is a Strategy of Polar Capital Funds plc which is authorised by the Central Bank of Ireland as an Undertaking for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities under the European Communities (Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities) Regulations 2011 (S.I. 352/2011), as amended. This website does not seek to make any recommendation to buy or sell any particular security (including shares in the Strategy) or to adopt any specific investment strategy. This website does not contain information material to an investor’s decision to invest in the Strategy. Shares in the Strategy are offered only on the basis of information contained in the prospectus, key investor information document (“KIID”), and the latest annual audited accounts. Copies are available free of charge from Polar Capital at the below address or on www.polarcapitalfunds.com. The KIID is available in Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Spanish and Swedish. The prospectus is available in English.
Third-party Data: Some information contained herein has been obtained from third party sources and has not been independently verified by Polar Capital. Neither Polar Capital nor any other party involved in or related to compiling, computing or creating the data makes any express or implied warranties or representations with respect to such data (or the results to be obtained by the use thereof), and all such parties hereby expressly disclaim all warranties of originality, accuracy, completeness, merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose with respect to any data contained herein.
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Information Subject to Change: The information contained herein is subject to change, without notice, at the discretion of Polar Capital and Polar Capital does not undertake to revise or update this information in any way.
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Benchmark: The Strategy is actively managed and uses the MSCI Daily Total Return EM Net Health Care USD as a performance target and to calculate the performance fee. The benchmark has been chosen as it is generally considered to be representative of the investment universe in which the Strategy invests. The performance of the Strategy is likely to differ from the performance of the benchmark as the holdings, weightings and asset allocation will be different. Investors should carefully consider these differences when making comparisons. Further information about the benchmark can be found at https://www.msci.com/. The benchmark is provided by an administrator on the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) register of benchmarks which includes details of all authorised, registered, recognised and endorsed EU and third country benchmark administrators together with their national competent authorities.
Country Specific Disclaimers: When considering an investment into the Strategy, you should make yourself aware of the relevant financial, legal and tax implications. Neither Polar Capital LLP nor Polar Capital Funds plc shall be liable for, and accept no liability for, the use or misuse of this document.
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