BB Biotech (SIX Swiss: BION) Q4 2025 Earnings Call

0:01 We saw a strong outperformance of our portfolio and share price versus the NBI benchmark by executing our investment strategy and our investment process. This was mainly driven by stock selection versus allocation. Biotech market stabilized after the April tariffs shock and there was a return back to fundamentals. Our portfolio was well positioned because of the focus on late stage clinical and early commercial stories. So it was less allocation, it was more stock selection in our case. Some of our mid-caps emerged to larger mid-caps, even large caps. Our RNA plays delivered greatly, Ionis and Alun during the year.

0:48 And then we had a couple of takeouts based on our new investments that we had made. Well, it tells us that the patent cliff that Big Pharma is facing with the larger companies is very, very large over the next five to ten years. And there is a strong need for external innovation. And that can happen through licensing, but it can happen through acquisition also. And we see that if there is a large patent cliff within the next four to five years, then those acquisitions have to happen more in the late stage clinical or early commercial realm. There is scarcity value. There are not an infinite amount of companies that are situated in that maturity stage.

1:43 So we remain very long-term committed with our IRR targets. We are a little bit more cautious for 2026 versus 25 or last year. A valuations have of course increased after that run-up last year. The interest rates will go lower but less than expected and that can also be volatile. The ground driver still for the industry is still the need for external innovation and M&A. And so if we put that all together, we're positioning the portfolio in a way that we can be long-term focused, but we're going to very actively manage our risk.