The Janus Obesity ETF (NasdaqGM: SLIM) tracks companies focused on fighting and preventing obesity. It has grown 37% YoY and 33% YTD. As obesity continues to evolve into a global epidemic, this ETF is positioned to show increased growth.
SLIM tracks biotechnology, pharmaceutical and healthcare companies that provide medical services to mitigate the growth of obesity in the US and internationally. These companies are servicing an issue that has shown exponential growth over the past few decades; and the number of obese people is expected to increase still with world population on the rise.
“Obesity is a huge epidemic globally. With an increase of 27.5% amongst adults and a staggering 47.1% amongst children and adolescents over the last 30 years, we have a serious problem on our hands,” says Seeking Alpha.
Due to the growing number of individuals affected by obesity, there is a strong market for servicing these people.
“Worldwide, more than 10% of men and some 14% of women are now classified as obese; those numbers are predicted to climb to 18% of men and 21% of women by 2025. As obesity and overweight levels rise, so do the enormous direct and indirect medical expenditures for treatment and prevention which globally are estimated at $2 trillion annually – creating increased pressure to tackle the issue,” reports Janus Henderson.
This has allowed companies in this industry to profit from the growing epidemic by targeting obesity-related medical issues such as diabetes, high blood pressure, cholesterol, heart disease, stroke and sleep apnea.
Healthcare companies make up 83% of SLIM’s holdings and 55% of its holdings include companies located in the United States. The largest population affected by obesity resides within the United States. The SLIM ETF takes advantage of this market and the potential prosperity that comes from companies fighting this crisis.
“If we focus on the fundamental issues we have a growing population, while at the same time also having an increasing percentage of the population becoming obese. This is exponential. This is extremely promising since any divergence or change in how obesity is treated would most probably not affect the price of the ETF negatively, while a continuing trend of obesity treatment & obesity related purchases (bariatric surgery, dieting pills, mobility scooters) would affect the price positively. At the same time, increases in obesity would fuel the demand for medication from complications – high blood pressure, diabetes – and would likely keep pharma stocks up,” says Seeking Alpha.
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