Biotech Funds - 2Q 2026
Biotech has been on an absolute tear starting 2H last year. XBI all time high, up 35%+ YTD (vs S&P 12%) and seems like tracking for a record year for biotech M&A and IPO performance.
As 2Q26 13Fs have all filed in the past week, thought it'd be interesting to benchmark equity holdings AUM growth of the dedicated biotech funds (~$3bn and larger) from 2Q25 -> 2Q26.
- Perceptive Advisors - $2.7bn -> $6.8bn (+152%)
- Paradigm BioCapital - $2.3bn -> $5.3bn (+128%)
- Deep Track Capital - $3.1bn -> $6.9bn (+121%)
- Vestal Point - $1.9bn -> $4.2bn (+119%)
- Avoro - $5.7bn -> $11.1bn (+95%)
- RA Capital - $6.0bn -> $11.5bn (+94%)
- Baker Bros - $10.3bn -> $20.0bn (+93%)
- Soleus - $1.5bn -> $2.9bn (+92%)
- Frazier Life Sciences - $2.5bn -> $4.6bn (+83%)
- Deerfield - $5.5bn -> $9.5bn (+74%)
- RTW - $7.0bn -> $11.7bn (+67%)
- OrbiMed - $3.7bn -> $5.2bn (+41%)
- BVF - $2.8bn -> $4.0bn (+39%)
- BB Biotech - $4.5bn -> $4.8bn (+5%)
- Braidwell - $2.9bn -> $2.7bn (-8%)
Top funds and broader group seeing incredible growth in just 12 months. Curious if folks have any takes on performance from these funds, and let me know if any I missed from screen.
Note: Source is public 13F records, % may not tie due to rounding to Bn shown
Anyone have intel on pod performance? Not sure how many pure biotech managers there are
Heard many pods were up big last year as select names recovered. Heard that this year finding good shorts has been harder and is affecting some of the neutral guys
13Fs don't tell you too much. They just tell you total gross long positions, which are impacted by leverage and don't count certain positions (ie swap).
Albeit I'm sure most of these firms are up a fair bit.
Looks like someone (analyst 1 accurate title? lol) doesn’t know how to properly interpret 13F filings. As a biotech specialist, I can assure you none of these funds are up nearly as much as your calculations. I can also tell you Perceptive, Deerfield, Orbi, BVF all are still below HWMs. (At least, I’m pretty sure of such.) So it really doesn’t matter how much these shadow LOs are up on a mega high beta run.
As mentioned, 13Fs only disclose net long public positions. Cash, swaps, shorts, privates, unregistered PIPEs, PFWs, are not included. Majority of the managers you listed are heavily involved in privates. Some of those marks have taken a gigantic bath post-2021 highs. Many were also holding substantial cash or degrossed net exposure going into tariff tantrums in 2q26. None of this would show up in the topline 13F number.
A much better proxy would be to look at total AUM claimed under the annual Form ADVs. You won’t get the timelines lined up as nearly as you can with quarterly reporting cycles, but if you do this exercise you will see a much closer representation of YoY performance. Even then it’s impossible to know whether the private marks are honest (lol assume no) or how much of the increase/decrease is due to inflows/outflows as opposed to strictly performance.
Anyway, most of these and other specialist funds have not outperformed XBI on a net-adjusted basis since 2022. (Avoro, Deep Track, Braidwell are notable exceptions that I know of firsthand.) The bigger they are, the more so you can be sure this is true since smid bio has major liquidity issues and thus >3B you are by definition a shadow LO on the public side; then tack on how privates were literal shit for nearly 4 years. (Check EIKN SCTX as recent examples of major IPO down rounds.)
Point being, nobody is surprised or should care that running 95 net long biotech has done well in the L12M. Some of em got a long way to go before any performance bonuses gon be paid. But then again…are we sure that’s still the business these guys are in at their sizes?
100% agree with this take.. the largest funds today (RA, RTW, Baker etc) are too large to find enough high conviction opportunities and build meaningful enough positions that actually move the needle for them.
I suppose to the Analyst's credit they technically did say they're benchmarking "equity holdings AUM" growth.. lol guess you learn quick how to CYA in banking. Still an interesting metric but not necessarily indicator of performance.
How recent is your info that these funds are still under HWM? Heard early this year that a some had renegotiated HWM with LPs
As recent as beginning of 2026. Also I mean their relative HWMs are relatively public knowledge ish. EcoR1 has a line graph of their returns out there, you can find it on Twitter.
I wouldn’t know anything about any renegotiations they’ve had with LPs. Not senior enough to know how such potential deals would go down. Sounds both plausible and retarded at the same time. If true, really speaks more so about how dumb LPs can be. Imagine agreeing to HWM resets instead of allocating to a promising upstart fund that has much more flexibility in deploying capital into the sector without as many hairy liquidity issues. Would only make sense for the largest of the large allocators. Meh. Depressing if true lol
Yea comments above are good. And getting to the bottom line, the real KPIs in this business are what are they doing to actually bring life changing and life saving products to market. The more you start hearing news of cures for cancer. Miracle weight loss drugs etc, that is much more of a sign that you’ll see biotech fund returns printing cash.
What? Spotted the generalist lol. C’mon let’s not write fanfic snuff for the kiddies who mostly frequent this forum. There’s no such thing as “real KPI is life changing and life saving products” LMAO. KPIs for biotech are no different than any other sector. The goal is to generate risk-adjusted returns and once you get big enough, maintain those returns just above water to keep collecting fat fees. LPs are not impressed with gene therapy breakthroughs that sell $100M a year and eventually get pulled from market (Roctavian). Please read up on spec pharma and 505b2 pathway at a minimum to get an inside look at how the industry constantly ekes out revenue repackaging old shit far more than they truly innovate the next GLP-1. Or the ludicrous number of “next generation” GLPs in development (60+ per my last count in Q1) and YTEs that add extremely little in terms of clinical differentiation yet will charge very high premium prices.
If you are referencing recent Moderna news, I’m sure you know short term trading dynamics were the reason MRNA spiked that high up, not because their “breakthrough” was fundamentally worth $60B in combined mkt cap if you include MRK move in the calculation. Many funds were short MRNA for a long time, so the fact that intismeran worked actually detracted from their returns. Ironic example to say the least
Any1 know what you get paid over at a Baker Bros?
Has the be crazy.
Probably no one knows. They are like ghosts and don’t talk to anybody. I’ve never seen them at a conference and they don’t talk to the sellside
Look at the shops that analysts rarely, if ever, leave (Baker, Deerfield, RTW). Can assume they pay well
Well baker makes you sign a 3 yr non compete, so that’s why nobody leaves.
Been publicly calling for this Biotech bull run since XBI was at $108 back in October '25. Went balls deep in Moderna sub $30. ;) The personal portfolio is on a tear this year.
MRNA was your pick?
Spotted the generalist
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