The coronavirus pandemic is certainly putting healthcare in the spotlight, but it’s also putting biotechnology under the proverbial microscope, particularly when it comes to finding a vaccine. As such, exchange-traded fund (ETF) investors can get next-level biotech exposure with funds like the Goldman Sachs Human Evolution ETF (GDNA ).
Wall Street is already making moves towards doubling down on biotech “when positive data for one of Pfizer Inc’s COVID-19 vaccine candidates sent shares of the large U.S. drugmaker up more than 3%. Shares of its partner on the vaccine, Germany’s BioNTech SE, have been flat on the data,” per a Wall Street Journal report.
“Although the news had little effect on shares of Pfizer’s large rivals in the vaccine race, smaller peers Moderna Inc (MRNA.O) and Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc (INO.O), both of which have previously shown promising COVID-19 data of their own, ended down more than 4% and 25%, respectively. Inovio partially rebounded Thursday,” the report added. “For the week so far, shares of bigger players in the vaccine race, such as Johnson & Johnson and Merck, have also outperformed Inovio and Moderna.”
Speaking of Johnson & Johnson, it’s one of the companies that GEM provides exposure to with regard to top 10 holdings. Other holdings include Intuitive Surgical Inc and Abbott Laboratories—all holdings as of July 1.
Capitalizing on Innovation
Generally speaking, GDNA seeks to provide investment results that closely correspond, before fees and expenses, to the performance of the Goldman Sachs Human Evolution Index (the “index”). The fund seeks to achieve its investment objective by investing at least 80% of its assets in securities included in its underlying index.
The index is designed to deliver exposure to companies with common equity securities listed on exchanges in certain developed markets that may benefit from the development of new knowledge, medicines, and technologies for the medical treatment of the human condition, from birth to end-of-life care.
GEM provides investors with exposure to:
- Human insight: We believe that people are the best suited to forecast change that is radically different from the past. Leveraging insights from our industry experts, we identified what we believe are the five most powerful secular growth themes being driven by technological innovation.
- Data-driven strategies: The Goldman Sachs Human Evolution ETF seeks to track a bespoke1 index which leverages advances technology to select and weight companies by a function of ‘thematic beta’ to provide precise exposure to theme.
- Versatility: The Goldman Sachs thematic ETFs provide exposure to the beneficiaries of technological innovation, regardless of sector, geography or market capitalization. They can be used individually or collectively to help investors position their portfolios for the future.
