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Servaas Michielssens & Linden Thomson
Thematic Global Equity
Investing in the fight against cancer: a concrete way to make a change
At Candriam, we have identified the fight against cancer as one of our key thematic strategies. Medical research needs private funding ! – and can be a source of opportunities for investors: highly innovative pharmaceutical or biotech companies may tend to present high earnings growth.
The innovation flow is multiple: it involves developing new drugs but also new procedures and tools to improve early detection and diagnosis as well as tumor profiling – which is key to more targeted therapies.
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”By investing in this strategy, you are supporting a broad range of innovative companies which may prove to be game-changers in cancer research.
Let’s write another story together
Find the right partner to invest in oncology
Our investment team, built over the past 20 years, has a strong medical background enabling them to evaluate the most complex drugs in terms of potential efficiency and opportunities.
How are we organized to detect tomorrow’s winners? Discover this in our “60 seconds with the fund manager” interview with Servaas Michielssens and Linden Thomson.
The cost of such innovative treatments is climbing fast, and is even skyrocketing for some, with the risk of making them harder to access...
That’s the cost of targeted medicine. Until the early 1990s, new treatments primarily addressed large patient populations. Cancers were treated as effectively as was possible with chemotherapy. Since then, however, research has shown that there is not just one type of breast cancer. There are actually many types that can, and should, be treated with different drugs. Generally speaking, in oncology, some very rare cancers only affect a few tens of thousands of patients around the world, and sometimes just hundreds...
Biotechnology has given us weapons to fight them, but that also means that each drug that is developed can only be prescribed to a limited number of patients. Meanwhile, R&D costs have risen incessantly, forcing prices up in an increasingly fragmented market. Of course, we can’t be naive, and negotiations between healthcare authorities and labs are critical to regulating prices, as is the intense competition waged between labs.
What’s more, we must not forget that putting drugs on the market creates funding for the innovation of tomorrow. And, when patents expire 10 to 12 years after they are approved for market, competition from generic and biosimilar drugs becomes very strong and prices drop. Ultimately, I find the system fairly efficient and think it stimulates the investments needed to meet future challenges.
PhD, CFA, Head of Healthcare, Thematic Global Equity
CFA, Senior Portfolio Manager
Q&A
- ENInvesting in oncology: forewarned is forearmed
- FRUn investissement dans l’oncologie : mieux vaut prévenir que guérir
- NLEen belegging in oncologie: beter voorkomen dan genezen
- DEIn onkologie investieren: vorbeugen ist besser als heilen
- ITInvestire nel settore oncologico: meglio prevenire che curare
- ESInversión en oncología
20 million
New cancer cases worldwide
10 million
Deaths per year
400,000
Children develop cancer every year
1 in 5 people
Will develop cancer in their lifetime
*Source: World Health Orgnanization, 2020 and 2022
Investing for tomorrow, and making a difference to cancer patients today
At Candriam, we believe the fight against cancer starts with concrete action, now. This is our dual impact philosophy. Investments in this strategy trigger a donation to leading institutes in oncology research[1], for research and innovation as well as supporting patients and their families. 3.3 million euros were given since 2018 to the fight against cancer[2].
[1] 10% of the net management fees received by Candriam on this strategy are allocated to associations and/or organizations fighting against cancer by being active in the field of scientific research and or the development of treatments, in social projects for families, in information, in public awareness and/or in cancer prevention, as set out in the section entitled Investment objectives of the regulatory documents.
[2] Donations between 2018 (creation of the Candriam Institute for Sustainable Development) and 2023.
All our strategies involve risks, including the risk of loss of capital.
The most significant risks on this strategy are:
- Risk of loss of capital
- Equity risk
- Foreign exchange risk
- Risk associated with derivative financial instruments
- Liquidity risk
- Emerging countries risk
- ESG Investment risk
- Counterparty risk
- Risk related to external factors
- Concentration risk
- Sustainability risk
- Risk of changes to the benchmark index by the index provider
- Hedging risk of the share classes
For further details on risks associated with investing in the promoted strategy, a general description and explanation of the various risk factors is available in the section Risk Factors of the relevant regulatory documents.
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