BB Biotech Update January 2021

At the start of of 2021 we have seen the first wave of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine rollouts, led by Moderna’s mRNA-1273 and Pfizer/BioNtech’s BNT162b2. Further, adenovirus-vector based vaccines and traditional recombinant protein subunit vaccines are beginning to be approved. January was a strong month for both the biotech sector and BB Biotech as we saw positive performance both in absolute terms and relative to the Nasdaq Biotech Index. From January 11 to 14 our portfolio management team participated in the annual JP Morgan Healthcare Conference which was in a virtual format this year. This conference is the largest and probably most informative healthcare symposium in the industry. Our team met with more than 50 companies this year – both current portfolio companies and potential investment candidates. The general feedback from our team was that, despite the pandemic, there continues to be an optimistic view on the outlook for the biotech sector.