Weight reduction drugs have drawn investor interest and shaken up other sectors prior to now 12 months or so. Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly were two early winners of this trend, as their drugs dominate the load loss drug market. Yuri Khodjamirian, fund manager at Tema ETFs, said each firms are a “very powerful duopoly.” “But there’s obviously going to be room ins such a giant market. The estimates currently are about $130 billion from Goldman Sachs. We expect it is going to be multiples of that,” he told CNBC Pro Talks last week. Khodjamirian believes there’s room for not less than three players on this space. “I believe the market is sufficiently big to sustain three to 4 players, even on the market caps which can be on the market immediately, however the market’s attempting to determine who that third or fourth player is, and a giant breakthrough might be oral GLP-1s,” he said. He was referring to GLP-1, a category of weight reduction drugs that was originally developed as a treatment for diabetes. GLP-1 is a hormone released within the gut that stimulates insulin secretion, slows the emptying of the stomach and communicates to the brain a sense of satisfaction. Stocks to look at Khodjamirian named Amgen , which is developing an injectable drug and other products for obesity. He also identified some biotech names with potential but that investors need to watch out about. Considered one of them is Carmot , which was acquired by pharmaceutical firm Roche last 12 months, he noted. He also named smaller biotech firms resembling Zealand Pharma and Viking Therapeutics . “These firms are early biotechs which can be developing data. They’re loads more dangerous than the larger ones who have already got drugs in the marketplace,” Khodjamirian said. “And due to this fact, you will have to only be very careful with making investments in such firms. So a diversified portfolio might be one of the best method to go,” he said. Tema ETFs offers actively managed exchange-traded funds, with a deal with health care and life sciences. Khodjamirian can be the chief investment officer of Tema ETFs and manages its Monopolies & Oligopolies ETF , which looks to offer investors with long-term growth through firms that operate in monopolistic industry structures. Khodjamirian highlighted three ETFs his firm manages which can be within the health-care industry: the Tema GLP-1, Obesity & Cardiometabolic ETF; the Tema Oncology ETF; and the Tema Neuroscience and Mental Health ETF. He said there is a “valuation opportunity” in biotech stocks for the time being, but warned of risks. “Smaller firms within the biotech space are difficult to select. You will have to essentially know what you are doing, and … in most of our biotech portfolios, we now have 50 stocks, we do not own greater than 1%, 2% in a few of these firms due to these risks, they might go to zero,” he said. Nevertheless, there are “loads” of innovations happening in biotech, and “a great deal of them” are trading below the worth of the money on their balance sheets, Khodjamirian said. “So there is a valuation opportunity on the market,” he said.
RFK Jr.’s panel weakens guidance
Dr. Vicky Pebsworth, from left, Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Retsef Levi, Case Western Reserve University Professor Catherine Stein and...
