The biggest investment trend most people still haven't noticed
If you’ve followed me for a while, you will hopefully be aware that I’ve been involved with the life sciences and biotech sector for more than ten years. From 2021 to last year, I spent three years particularly focused on the sector in order to produce my third book Our Future is Biotech.
The fundamental idea of the book is that the biotechnology and related industries are highly likely to have a very significant and positive impact on all of us, and much sooner than many of us realise.
Since the industrial revolution, technology has massively changed and improved the human experience and lifted several billion people out of poverty. This has been super-charged in the last 30 years or so by the arrival of the internet and smart phones in particular, and created multi-trillion dollar companies and household names like Apple, Amazon, Google and Microsoft.
Tech has also been the underlying driver of American shares having delivered an average annual return of around 10.5% a year for more than a century – a point I’ve made many times in recent years.
Our Future is Biotech looks to make the case that biotech is next, because of the exponential pace of scientific progress, and because many of our biggest remaining challenges as a species concern biological systems.
We are reaching the point where we can program living systems almost as reliably as we program silicon. The implications of this are pretty interesting, to put it mildly:
In human health
Many of today’s most feared diseases — cancer, Alzheimer’s, heart disease, obesity, diabetes, auto-immune conditions — are moving from “incurable” to “manageable” or even “curable”.
A good number of the world's leading scientists also now believe the first person to live to 150 is already alive, and that many of us will enjoy decades more of healthy life than we currently expect. 70 or even 80 or 90 could soon be “the new 40” for many of us alive today.
Beyond healthcare...
Perhaps more important still, biotech can and will be able to roll back environmental degradation, clean our soils, rivers and oceans, revolutionise agriculture and clean power generation, and even super-charge the processing power of our computers with new “biological” computing that could be millions of times more powerful and energy-efficient than silicon.
Biotech is arguably the first technology that can simultaneously solve our biggest health, environmental, and resource problems — all while creating enormous economic value along the way.
Investing in biotech
This is why many of the world’s most successful investors and institutions have been allocating billions to the sector for years.
It is also why the life-sciences weighting in global equity indices is highly likely to grow dramatically from where it is today, just as the technology sector has in the last few decades.
For most investors, broad global indices will capture a good deal of this value-creation automatically, as I argued in the concluding chapter of my book.
That said, some may prefer earlier, more concentrated, and more specialist exposure to the sector, particularly whilst it remains as under-appreciated as it currently is outside of the United States.
For readers who may not know: Plain English Finance is the appointed investment manager of the Conviction Life Sciences Company (CLSC), a specialist fund focused exclusively on this theme.
Due to the nature of the fund, it is only available to qualifying Professional, High Net Worth and Sophisticated Investors.
If this describes you and you are interested in finding out more, please do email me using the email: andrew.craig@plainenglishfinance.com
I believe the biotech revolution is the most important structural theme most investors have not yet fully woken up to, particularly in the UK.
If you want to learn about it in more detail, my book sets out the evidence in what I hope is plain English! You can order your copy here:
Praise for Our Future is Biotech:
“Andrew presents an invigorating vision of biotech’s profound impact on our lives, underpinned by a rich tapestry of scientific innovation and human progress. Our Future is Biotech is a clarion call to those mired in pessimism, offering an informed, optimistic outlook grounded in tangible advancements and potential. With its accessible narrative and compelling evidence, it not only educates but inspires readers to engage with the biotech revolution — both for personal empowerment and as savvy investors. As the book reveals the sector’s capacity to reshape industries from healthcare to clean energy, it's an essential read for anyone committed to understanding the technologies that will define our future.”
- Christian Angermayer, Biotech Entrepreneur and Founder of Apeiron Investment Group
"A tour-de-force and a book that I found unputdownable. Andrew has seen the way for biotech and brings a unique, insightful and typically plain-English perspective to us all. This is a must-read and highly recommended."
- Barry Smith, Founder of Sunday Times’ Fast Track 100 probiotics company, Symprove
"An excellent analysis of the life-changing scientific developments occurring in the world right now and a good prod in the ribs to governments and regulators to improve the funding environment to ensure we all benefit!"
- Jim Wilkinson, CFO, Oxford Science Enterprises
“Our Future Biotech serves as an essential guide through the transformative world of health technology. This book brilliantly maps out the intricate challenges and opportunities of the biotech sector in an era of extended life expectancy, increasing burden of chronic diseases, and widening health inequalities. With its thorough analysis and forward-looking solutions concerning new technologies, financial strategies, and healthcare reforms, it empowers readers to not only understand but also contribute to the evolution of healthcare. The inspiring "The Future is Bright" chapter left me optimistic about our ability to harness innovation for better health outcomes. A must-read for anyone interested in the future of human health.”
- Jo Pisani, Chair of the Precision Health Technology Accelerator and several European biotech companies, former head of PwC UK Pharma and Life Sciences
"Throughout our history, nature has sustained and nurtured humanity. In our complex modern world, more than ever before, we need to look again to nature to inspire and unlock innovative solutions and new technologies that can transform our way of life and protect and sustain the environment and biological support systems of our precious planet. As Andrew Craig so succinctly states in the title of his timely and erudite book: Our future is biotech. As a 'non-scientist', Andrew’s grasp of the key concepts and complex fundamentals that underpin the application of biotechnology to solve problems in such diverse areas as human health, sustainable agriculture, waste management and clean energy production is extraordinary. He delivers a clear, comprehensive, accessible and unbiased view of the industry and its potential that is easily accessible to a wide readership. This is a must read for the shrewd investor with an eye to the significant opportunities emerging from the sustainable and life-changing new technologies emerging from this industry, but also for those more broadly interested in a guide to understanding biotechnology and its importance to the future of humanity and our planet."
- Dr Victoria Gordon, Co-Founder, QBiotics Group, Former Chairman of the Australian Rainforest Foundation.
"In a world of ever-greater complexity, biotechnology is at the forefront of the complex. From the medicines we take, to the medical devices that are implanted, to the myriad of apps directing our diet and exercise regimes. Every day we are impacted by the products of this 'biotech revolution'. Even those who specialise in biotechnology can struggle to keep up! Our Future is Biotech is an outstanding, easy to read, anatomy of the impacts that biotechnology will have on all of us, what we need to understand and what we might need to do about it. I urge anyone with an interest in the future to read it!"
- Dr Eliot Forster, Professor of Molecular and Clinical Cancer Medicine at the University of Liverpool, CEO of Levicept and Chairman of Avacta plc
“Our Future is Biotech is one of the most positive accounts of the potential of biotechnology that I have read. It emphasises the important interaction between adequate funding for research and the potential benefits to human health, making the case that if there is adequate funding then nothing is beyond our abilities to improve our existence on planet earth.”
- Professor Ingvar Bjarnason MD, MSc, FRCPath, FRCP(Glasg), DSc, Professor of Digestive Diseases, Consultant Physician & Gastroenterologist.
"This is a must read. In a world of volatility and short-term thinking, Andy looks at the longer term trends that matter and identifies how we should be taking advantage of them. He has a lovely way of writing – insightful yet humble, knowledgeable yet open to new and fresh ideas and opportunities. I recommend Our Future is Biotech to anyone that wants to know more about the future and how we can all benefit from the greatest period of technological and scientific change in human history."
- Mike Seabrook, veteran UK stockbroker, head of Oberon Capital.