3Q20 Wrap: Biotech’s sideways quarter
Biotech midcaps the single bright spot amongst mostly flat valuations in 3Q20
The third quarter saw most tiers of the biotech sector trade flat as investors took profits from big moves in 2Q20 and fund inflows to the sector drastically dried up. The midcap group between $5-$9.9 billion was the best performer with a median gain of about 15%, while all other tiers saw single-digit moves.
Companies starting 3Q20 with valuations above $10 billion added a median of 3% in market capitalization in the quarter, putting them up 27.4% year to date. Leading the group was BeiGene Ltd. (NASDAQ:BGNE; HKEX:6160) which saw its market cap more than double to nearly $26 billion. Early in the quarter the Chinese-based biotech raised $2.1 billion through a registered direct offering to bulk up its cash reserves to accelerate development of its clinical stage oncology pipeline (see “BeiGene’s Billions”)...