New York (HedgeCo.net) – The biotech sector has been on a bit of a rollercoaster ride in 2015 with the sector rising, then falling and then bouncing back, but that hasn’t kept one biotech-focused hedge fund from delivering an impressive performance.

While the NYSE ARCA Biotech Index (BTK) rose almost 29% from the beginning of the year through mid-July, the index proceeded to fall over 25% from mid-July through the end of September only to bounce 15% off the September low. While the sector as a whole was bouncing around, Perceptive Life Sciences Offshore Fund was producing a YTD return of 27.87% through December 11 according to a recent article from Business Insider that highlighted the fund. The article cited information from HSBC and showed that the average biotech hedge fund has performed far better than hedge funds as a whole with biotech-focused funds averaging 9.64% returns while the average hedge fund is down 3.72%.

Perceptive benefitted from one recent move in the biotech sector as they were an 8% stakeholder in Acerta Pharma ahead of AstraZeneca’s offer to buy a 55% stake in Acerta. In addition to that windfall, Perceptive holds positions in Neurocrine Biosciences and Retrophin, both of which have seen huge gains this year.

Perceptive was founded by Joseph Edelman in 1999 and has approximately $1.14 in assets under management.

Rick Pendergraft
Research Analyst
HedgeCoVest