The UltraPro NASDAQ Biotechnology, the newest member of the bullish leveraged biotech ETF crowd, debuted on June 23 and has since raked in $11.5 million. UBIO is the triple-leveraged answer to IBB.
Though not for the faint of heart, leveraged biotech ETFs are delivering on the promise of outsized gains. For example, LABU and BIB are up 29% and 13.1%, respectively, over the past month. More upside could be on the way if industry fundamentals remain solid.
“As new discoveries draw investors to the sector, other factors are adding fuel to the fire behind the sector’s strong performance. The regulatory environment in particular remains very accommodating to pharma and biotech companies. The FDA approved 41 new drugs during 2014, the largest number of yearly approvals in at least a decade . According to a report issued by the FDA, “About 41% of the novel new drugs approved in 2014 (17 of 41) were approved to treat rare or ‘orphan’ diseases that affect 200,000 or fewer Americans. ” Companies are generally able to justify charging higher prices for these so-called orphan drugs, given their importance to the patient populations they serve and the high cost of associated R&D,” according to a recent Nasdaq note.
Direxion Daily S&P Biotech Bull Shares
