Dear all,
Below please find fund's commentaries on Manulife Healthcare , a master fund of MS-HCARE for the month of September 2015.
Manulife Healthcare Fund (September 2015)
Market Review
It has been a volatile month and quarter for the healthcare sector. Hillary Clinton declared a recent drug price hike "outrageous" and suggested price control as part of her campaign promises. A group of lawmakers demanded that Valeant be subpoenaed.
The healthcare sector return lagged the broader market amid the political rhetoric in September, with the MSCI World Health Care Index down 6.14% versus -3.58% for the broader MSCI AC World Index. All healthcare subsectors were down, biotechnology and healthcare equipment saw the biggest declines while healthcare services was the best performer.
Portfolio Review
Biogen and Juno Therapeutics contributed to performance, reversing previous trends. Biogen held up well in a volatile market, reflecting its undervalued nature. We believe the current stock price only reflected its current product values and its pipeline is a free option at this point. Juno is up 12% in a down month, also reflecting its undervalued nature.
Valeant detracted from performance. A group of lawmakers sent a letter to the US senate requesting it to subpoena the company, accusing the company of hiking drug prices. The move drove the stock down 17% in one day (although the stock subsequently recovered most of its losses). The US is a free drug price country. Drug price inflation is both common and legal. Valeant is not believed to have done anything wrong or illegal. There are many political hurdles to climb in order to implement drug price control, among them, the single payer system and strong pharmaceutical lobby. We believe the noise is unlikely to have any substantive impact on the stock price. We continue to hold the stock.
Market Outlook
It has been a volatile month for the stock market in general and for healthcare stocks. However, our portfolio companies are all high-quality companies with decent returns and sustainable profitability. Although it is hard to predict how the stock prices will perform in the short term, in the long run, the earnings of our portfolio companies should help weather any market volatility.