Mr. Abel: We're a specialty mutual fund company. The Medical Fund is one of our funds, the Internet Fund is our largest fund, and we have a small cap fund and an Internet emerging growth fund. I'm the portfolio manager of the Medical Fund, which is a biotech and pharmaceutical fund.
TWST: What is the investment philosophy of the Fund?
Mr. Abel: The Fund invests solely in first-line pharmaceuticals, i.e.,
those that are patent-protected, and that encompasses both the biotech
and pharmaceutical areas. We don't make much of a distinction between
biotechs and pharmaceuticals, as the business models are identical.
Further, the Medical Fund is broken up into roughly three tiers: one-
third being large pharmaceuticals, one-third being profitable biotechs,
and one-third is made up of small positions in yet-to-be-profitable
biotechs and pharmaceuticals, none of those positions ever exceeding 1%.
We don't feel that either we or anybody can unequivocally identify for
you who the next Amgen is going to be, but what you can do is determine
the qualities the next Amgen is going to need to embody and find all the
companies with those qualities and buy them in judiciously small
positions.
Tickers included in this excerpt: AMGN, AVXT, BIOM, CEGE, DNA, HGSI, IDPH, ILXO, IMCL, JNJ, MEDI, MEDX, NVS, PFE, PHA, RHHVF, SGP
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