There has been mixed news on biotech stocks and exchange traded funds (ETFs) this year.  Large-cap biotech has been hurt by concerns on drug safety, tightened Medicare reimbursement and new competition from generics, reports Karen Anderson for Morningstar. Small-caps have fared well due to positive clinical data and takeover speculation. And as baby boomers age they’ll need the benefits of biotech.  Investing in biotechnology can be confusing so a basket of biotech stocks such as an ETF can be helpful.  Some of the biotech ETFs include:

• iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology (IBB) - Celgene (CELG) makes up 6% of IBB and CELG recently got FDA approval on a cancer blood cells treatment.  IBB is up 4.9% year-to-date.
• SPDR S&P Biotech (XBI) - Fifty-two percent of this ETF is made up of small-cap biotech companies.  XBI is up 23% year-to-date
• First Trust Amex Biotechnology Index (FBT) - The 20 holdings in this ETF span across large- mid- and small-cap stocks.  FBT is up 6.8% for the year.
• Biotech HOLDRs (BBH) - This ETF has predominately large-cap stocks, with Genetech (DNA) and Amgen (AMGN) making up 60%.  BBH is down 5.1% so far this year.
• PowerShares Dynamic Biotech & Genome (PBE) - Small-caps make up about 45% of this ETF, which is up 7.3% this year.

Tags: Biotechnology, Large-Cap, Small-Cap

Share: Digg | Bookmark at Del.icio.us |