Healthcare: A Prescription for Growth
Dear valued clients, In this day and age, our watches don’t just tell the time. They nudge us to stand, take a moment to breathe, and even alert us to irregular heart rhythms. Indeed, smart watc...
Chief Investment Office - Hong Kong17 Nov 2022
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Dear valued clients,

In this day and age, our watches don’t just tell the time. They nudge us to stand, take a moment to breathe, and even alert us to irregular heart rhythms. Indeed, smart watches are as ubiquitous as they are innovative, and hint at the rise of medical devices—just one of many factors fuelling the healthcare trend.

Yet, when we consider the healthcare sector as a whole, its healthy performance comes as no surprise. As our report would show, it has consistently delivered strong earnings and share price performance in the past decade, thanks in no small part to long-term tailwinds. For one, ageing populations and longer lifespans continue to drive demand for goods and services that help to heal or delay the onset of disease. The Covid pandemic of recent years, while disruptive for other sectors, has proven to be more boon than bane.

In a bid to capitalise on an ever-evolving litany of illnesses and viruses, global R&D spending of pharmaceutical companies is projected to reach USD213b in 2024, nearly double that of 2010. Orphan drugs occupy a particularly interesting part of this picture. With its ability to treat rare diseases and potential to seed future drug patents, pharmaceutical firms stand to benefit from their rise.

What does it all mean for your portfolio? Buoyed by long-term secular tailwinds and inherently defensive characteristics, we believe that the healthcare sector has earned its place in any holistic portfolio construct. Among the sub-sectors in healthcare, we overweight pharma, equipment and devices, and life science tools for reasons outlined in the following report.

With this, I wish you good health and a healthier portfolio. I hope you find this read insightful.

 
Hou Wey Fook, CFA Chief Investment Officer

Download the PDF to read the report.

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