Equity Research Sales Associate-Biotech & Medical Devices – The Street Scout, LLC – New York, NY

A top tier provider of Biotechnology and Medical Technology research and investment banking services seeks an experienced Sales Associate interested in joining…

From eFinancialCareers – 19 May 2010 16:23:34 GMT
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Top Health Equity Funds

Featuring top performing Health equity mutual funds, which primarily invest in equity securities of healthcare and interrelated companies because this sector continues to show promise despite concerns about the impact of the new health care legislation. Even though, policy changes continue to be a important indicator to investing in the sector, those companies that have diversified into foreign markets, whose business models are based on information technology platforms or those that offer a wide range of products, continue to show promise.

Investors can find such health funds by checking out the entire list of the Zacks #1 Rank Health Equity Funds.

5 Health Fund picks

Franklin Biotechnology Discovery A (FBDIX) seeks long term capital growth. It was created in September 1997.

A large share of the assets of this health fund, at least 80%, are invested in equity securities of biotechnology companies and discovery research firms worldwide, including those concentrating on therapeutics, drug delivery, gene therapy. The health fund also invests in smaller capitalization companies, those with a market capitalization of less than $1.5 billion. It also places a smaller part of its kitty in private or illiquid securities, such as late stage venture capital financings.

This health equity fund has an expense ratio of 1.32% against a category average of 1.91%. As of July 2009, it has a portfolio turnover of 45% against a category average of 135%. The funds top holdings include Amgen Inc, Gilead Sciences Inc and Celgene Corp. For the six-month period ended 30 September 2009, the health Fund’s performance was lower than its benchmark index, NASDAQ Biotech Price Index. However, the fund has exceeded its benchmark index for the 1-year period ended 31 March 2009.

Evan S. McCulloch has been lead manager of the health fund since September 1997. McCulloch is a designated Chartered Financial Analyst and has been with Franklin since 1992.

Eaton Vance Worldwide Health Sciences A (ETHSX) seeks capital appreciation by investing in a global and diversified portfolio of health sciences companies. It was incepted in July 1985.

This health fund invests in a worldwide health sciences portfolio. It invests in companies of all sizes, including those with lower market capitalizations. This health fund focuses on firms engaged in the development, production or distribution of products developed through healthcare research.

The fund has an expense ratio of 2.11% against a category average of 1.91%. As of September 2009, it has a portfolio turnover of 54% against a category average of 135%. The health funds top holdings include Johnson & Johnson, Roche Holding AG and Genzyme Corp. For the year ending August 31, 2009, the Fund had negative performance, primarily because of extreme pessimism in the broader stock market during the first half of the year. Nevertheless, the health Fund outperformed the S&P 500 Index, the MSCI World Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences Index (the MSCI World Pharma Index) and its Lipper peer group.

Samuel D. Isaly has been lead manager of this health fund since July 1985. Prior to his current assignment, Isaly was a president and partner with Mehta and Isaly Asset Management.

Fidelity Select Pharmaceuticals (FPHAX) was incepted in June 2001. This health fund seeks long-term capital appreciation.

A majority of this health fund’s assets, at least 80%, are invested in companies engaged in healthcare research and development as well as those involved in the production and distribution of drugs. The health fund invest in both foreign and domestic issuers and it is non-versified.

The health fund has an expense ratio of 1% against a category average of 1.91%. As of August 2009, it has a portfolio turnover of 240% against a category average of 135%. The funds top holdings include Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer Inc and Merck & Co. As of October 2009, the investment performance of the health fund compares favorably to its benchmark for the three- and five-year periods, although the fund’s one-year cumulative total return was lower than its benchmark.

Andrew Oh has been lead manager of the health fund since July 2006. Before his current assignment, Oh was director and senior pharmaceuticals analyst for Leernik Swann & Company.

BlackRock Health Sciences Opportunities A (SHSAX) seeks to provide long-term growth of capital. It was incepted in December 1999.

This health fund invests mainly in healthcare stocks of the Russell 3000 Index or in similar companies which includes foreign issuers. The fund invests in a wide range of companies, pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical devices and healthcare services companies. It may invest in different types of instruments, common and preferred stocks, convertible securities, warrants and depository receipts. The health fund may invest up to 20% of its total assets in companies outside the health sector.

The health fund has an expense ratio of 1.43% against a category average of 1.91%. As of June 2009, it has a portfolio turnover of 144% against a category average of 135%. The funds top holdings include Alcon Inc, Pfizer Inc and Novartis AG. For the third quarter of 2009, the health fund outperformed its Lipper Health/Biotechnology Funds category average and its performance benchmark, the Russell 3000Health Care Index, but underperformed the broad-market S&P 500 Index. .

Thomas P. Callan has been lead manager of the fund since January 2005. Callan is a Chartered Financial Analyst and heads BlackRock’s Global Opportunities equity team.

Manning & Napier Life Sciences (EXLSX) seeks long-term growth. It was incepted in June 2001.

This health fund invests heavily in companies in the healthcare industry. It invests in domestic and foreign issuers, including American Depository Receipts (ADRs) and other U.S. dollar denominated securities of foreign issuers. The health fund is non-diversified.

The health fund has an expense ratio of 1.13% against a category average of 1.91%. As of September 2009, it has a portfolio turnover of 98% against a category average of 135%. The funds top holdings include Covidien Public Ltd, Inverness Medical Innovations and Eclipsys Corp.

Jeffrey S. Coons has been lead manager of this health fund since November 1999. Coons is a Chartered Financial Analyst and joined Manning & Napier Advisors in 1993.

Discover Many More Funds

Learn more about the new Zacks Mutual Fund Rank and discover some of the best market-beating mutual funds by browsing our mutual funds section. This part of Zacks.com offers a variety of tools, including mutual fund research, a new mutual fund screener, helpful answers to frequently asked questions and quick access to prospectuses and other information.

By applying the Zacks Rank to mutual funds, investors can find funds that not only outpaced the market in the past but are also expected to outperform going forward.

The Cost of US Healthcare: Could Private Equity be an Answer?

It is common knowledge that the global economy has been irreversibly changed since last Summer. Now nearly two years into serious recession, the United States has scrambled to hold any sort of ground in consumer confidence, losing countless jobs and huge revenues in almost every sector. Real estate and retail have been hit especially hard, forcing bankruptcies and driving up unemployment across the entire country. The one sector of the economy which has held steady in both job creation and economic output, however, is health care.

With President Obama just five months into his first term, his administration has spent furiously in an effort to shore up the financial framework, issued executive orders regarding the withdrawal of troops from Iraq and the closing of the Guantanamo Bay prison camp, and has most recently taken steps towards overhauling health insurance infrastructure. In an article for the Wall Street Journal [“Health Costs are the Real Deficit”], Peter Orszag, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, explained the administration’s urgency in adapting and reforming the nation’s health care system. “Health-care costs are the key to our fiscal future, and even doctors and hospitals agree that substantial efficiency improvements are possible in how medicine is practiced.” (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124234365947221489.html)

Can efficiency be the key to a solution? Instead of simply meaning expedience and ease of practice, Orszag further qualifies the term by linking it to what many in the industry believe to be more successful care. “In health care, unlike in other sectors, higher quality currently seems to be associated with lower cost — not the opposite.”

Exactly how to go about achieving this new efficiency in the insurance infrastructure has become a sticking point in the political dialogue in Washington. So far there is a disconnect between the President’s proposals and the recommendations of the Senate Finance Committee. The New York Times recently published a special section dedicated to illuminating options now on the table. President Obama has sought to take a three fold approach: First by cutting “$622 billion in spending by reducing Medicare and Medicaid payments to hospitals, insurers, drug companies and home health agencies and by eliminating subsidies for insurers that offer the elderly private plans through Medicare”; secondly, by creating a public insurance option that would –in Obama’s eyes- “make the health care market more competitive and keep insurance companies honest”; and thirdly, to raise about $326 billion in taxes by limiting tax deductions for charitable donation, on mortgage interest, as well as by closing corporate tax loopholes.

What’s left out of this current debate, however, is the connected cost of overhauling the physical health care infrastructure itself, outside of the issue of coverage for all.

The private sector has begun to take an active role in the issue. Take for example Wal-Mart’s entrance into the world of medical record digitization. Physorg.com, a well-known science and technology blog, published an article on this when the company first announced its intentions to provide the service, selling “bundles, which include the hardware, software, installation, training, and maintenance” of the technology (http://www.physorg.com/news156003028.html). 

“We feel a great need,” explains Susan Koehler, Wal-Mart spokesperson. “We feel the timing is right given our country’s goals for health care reform. This will enable small town physicians to have greater access to health information technology. There was never one single purchase point. We will become that single point to funnel medical professionals through partners like eClinicalWorks and a hardware partner that will make this a streamlined experience.”

With Wal-Mart making a play in the digitization of medical records (a project which also received $19 billion in President Obama?s stimulus plan) the private equity world may have its necessary case study. And, at a time when the industry is looking for sure footing, financing the infrastructural shift in the healthcare system could provide both great returns, and more of that key ingredient – efficiency. The Obama administration has already enlisted the help of private capital to help free the banking system of its famous toxic assets, so why not extend the same invitation in the world of health care?

Enter an entrepreneur like Mouli Cohen, with a history of successful investments in biotech companies and with a current firm, Voltage Capital, working to uncover the emerging opportunities in scientific discovery specific to the healthcare industry. “Research and development is increasingly expensive and the major pharmaceutical companies have reduced their efforts,” Cohen explains. “This shifts the burden onto biotech and academia. In the end, someone or some entity has to sponsor the work that will allow us to innovate and move ahead.”

Simultaneously, with his personal philanthropic efforts, he has concentrated his efforts on working to eradicate blindness in children, further stem cell research, and cure autism. Many times Cohen’s endeavors blur the line between business and philanthropy, in the same way that Bill Gates has built his a innovative new platform with The Gates Foundation.

Cohen believes greatly in the future of this combination as the technological and operational aspects of healthcare system continue to improve, “There are many opportunities in both the biotech and traditional health care industries to help to achieve a more efficient way of treating people, while fulfilling our goals from an investment perspective as well.”

 

Research Associate – Biotech – Equity Research

William Blair & Company Llc (Chicago, Illinois)

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Research Associate – Biotech – Equity Research – William Blair & Company LLC – Chicago, IL

Research Associate to join our Healthcare team supporting our sell-side Biotech a nalyst.

Conduct research, build and/or update financial models and other…

From New York Times – 17 Mar 2010 23:16:12 GMT – job details – View all Chicago jobs

View full post on biotech Jobs | Indeed.com

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