Tazio Storni, Senior Investment Manager, Lydia Haueter, Senior Investment Manager & Marco Minonne Senior Investment Manager Pictet Asset Management.
In a universe where innovation has the power to transform patients’ lives, but one also dominated by mergers, takeovers and bankruptcies, our Biotech strategy has stood the test of time.
Pictet’s Biotech strategy is celebrating 30 years. What has changed since the launch in 1995?
Back in the 90s, the biotech universe was dominated by a few players and was at times highly concentrated. Over the course of thirty years, it has expanded greatly thanks to a high number of biotech Initial Public Offerings (IPOs). In an industry where costs are high and so are failure rates, this came hand in hand with a steady volume of exits through mergers and acquisitions as well as, less frequently, bankruptcies.
If we look at the NASDAQ Biotechnology Index (NBI) member count as a measure of universe size, it evolved from less than 100 members in the early 2000s to almost 400 in 2022 after a frenzy of IPOs during the COVID19 pandemic. The following years were followed by a string of companies going bust, merging or restructuring, and we are now back to a more typical level of around 250 members in the NBI.
Source:Nasdaq, October 2025
How do you navigate such a dynamic and highly technical environment?
Our diverse team combines both financial and scientific backgrounds. We share an intense curiosity for drug development and scientific progress, as well as for the business of biotech. Thanks to our investment approach combined with the right skillset, the Biotech strategy has stood the test of time and is now among the 10 largest Biotech strategies globally according to Broadridge.Source: Broadridge, August 2025
Do you have any memorable anecdotes?
It’s always impressive to attend a medical congress with thousands of doctors, and to witness a biotech company being met with a standing ovation after presenting highly anticipated trial data. That really tells you the therapy is impactful, not just on the bottom line but on patient lives!
How are tech acceleration and artificial intelligence (AI) impacting biotech?
AI has an impact on many aspects of drug development, and we are just starting to reap its benefits. In silico modeling, where experiments are conducted through computer simulation, is making drug design much more streamlined and deliberate. What used to be broad spectrum approaches have evolved into carefully designed molecules with great drug properties such as high effectiveness, safety, and selectivity.
Large Language Models (LLMs) help sift through the massive amount of data generated in biomedical research. Coupled with large databases of genetic sequences and disease features, they allow for the discovery of new drug targets.
AI contributes to making clinical trials more robust, quicker and cheaper by helping select the right patients, thereby allowing for smaller-sized trials. AI assistants can help patients be compliant with the drug and stay in the trial. With every new drug review by regulators, massive documents must be submitted and reviewed, sometimes with hundreds of thousands of pages. AI helps compile these documents and assists reviewers in looking at them more effectively. One of the costliest parts of healthcare is bureaucracy, particularly in relation to payer coverage and reimbursement. We believe AI will be a boon in reducing friction here as well.
In our view, AI will permeate all aspects of biotech and increase productivity. Although it is not directly investable per se, it will make the industry better as a whole.
What do you think investors in this field should keep an eye out for?
We are always keen to find companies with novel technology platforms that offer scalable approaches, as targets that weren’t druggable can suddenly become within reach. These are scarce but have the potential to transform themselves from small-cap firms to large biopharma powerhouses. Furthermore, novel targets that nobody has tried before come with biological risk, but also untapped market potential. We especially like areas where there is a clear biological marker that can tell you early on whether a drug is impacting the right processes in the body, as this can significantly speed up or derisk clinical trials.
