The Senior Editor of InvestmentNews, Jeff Benjamin, published an article today about investing in Healthcare Information Technology (Health IT) along with a reference to my Global Health IT Index and phone interview comments. The Global Health IT space is well suited for an exchange-traded fund (ETF) basket approach to investing since most of the companies are small / micro-caps, but poised to benefit from long-term growth trends and consolidation in the industry by leaders such as Allscripts-Misys (NASDAQ: MDRX) and Cerner (NASDAQ: CERN).
The HavRx Global Health IT Index is actively managed and tracks the performance of companies with market caps below $10 billion that derive over either $50 million or 50% of their trailing 12-month revenue from products and services for the following activities: (1) electronic transmission, storage, and processing of prescriptions; (2) secure e-mail transmission for healthcare facilities; (3) electronic transmission, storage, and processing of medical imaging and diagnostic information; (4) electronic storage and systems for administrative functions of healthcare facilities and medical records; (5) electronic transmission, storage, and systems for healthcare market data and clinical trial data; (6) electronic systems, devices, and services for remote, real-time monitoring of patient health parameters; (7) medical transcription services, products, and systems for conversion into electronic medical records.
Generic drug stocks have fared the best over the past three months among my healthcare indexes, outpacing the overall market by approximately 2X on a percentage gain basis. Big stock price gainers over the past year among U.S.-based components include Hi-Tech Pharmacal (NASDAQ: HITK) (+150%) and Mylan (NYSE: MYL) (+90%).
The HavRx Global Global Generic Drug Index is actively managed and tracks the performance of companies which meet any of the following three requirements: (1) Derive either $500 million (USD) OR more than 50% of trailing 12-month revenues from the manufacture and sale of any type of generic (off-patent) prescription or over-the-counter (OTC) drug product intended for use by humans, including contract manufacturing services for drug products and biological agents; (2) Have one or more compound(s) in active clinical development OR have a pending ANDA with the FDA for a generic drug candidate; (3) As an alternative to the revenue requirement, companies may also qualify by receiving FDA approval for an abbreviated new drug application (ANDA) within the past 12 months.
Disclosure: No positions
