Baron Funds, an investment management company, released its “Baron Health Care Fund” fourth quarter 2023 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. The fund advanced 7.69% (Institutional Shares) in the quarter compared to a 6.96% gain for the Russell 3000 Health Care Index and an 11.69% increase for the S&P 500 Index. For the full year, the fund increased 6.42%, compared to 2.87% and 26.29% returns for the indexes, respectively. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2023.
Baron Health Care Fund featured stocks such as Structure Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:GPCR) in its Q4 2023 investor letter. Headquartered in South San Francisco, California, Structure Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:GPCR) is a clinical stage global biopharmaceutical company. On January 19, 2024, Structure Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:GPCR) stock closed at $40.77 per share. One-month return of Structure Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:GPCR) was 14.55%, and year-to-date its shares gained 0.02% of their value. Structure Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:GPCR) has a market capitalization of $1.891 billion.
Baron Health Care Fund stated the following regarding Structure Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:GPCR) in its fourth quarter 2023 investor letter:
“Structure Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:GPCR) is a biotechnology company dedicated to making oral small molecule medicines to target the obesity and diabetes market. Recent share weakness has been due to two large pharmaceutical acquisitions in the space: Roche’s purchase of Carmot and AstraZeneca’s in-licensing of Eccogene’s GLP-1 asset. These developments were followed by updates from Structure that implied it had a promising asset, but it might be inferior to Eli Lilly’s first-in-class product. Shares fell as analysts reduced the probability of success surrounding potential peak sales. We think it is too early to reach a final conclusion on the company’s oral small molecule GLP-1, as these data sets are limited in total sample size, and there are compelling arguments for both sides. Given how quickly this space changes and our smaller position sizing due to the aforementioned dynamics, we are monitoring our position and making decisions based on our evolving analysis.
We initiated a small position in Structure Therapeutics Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company. Structure is developing an oral small molecule GLP-1 with once daily dosing. We think the GLP-1 class of obesity/diabetes drugs has the potential to be the largest drug class ever and that parts of the market will be particularly well suited to oral medications. Some people find oral medications more convenient than injectables, and oral small molecule drugs are cheaper and easier to manufacture than injectables, which could allow for lower pricing and greater access, particularly in international markets. Structure’s drug is still in its early phase of development, but there is reason to think that it could be successful. The drug was designed through the company’s structure-based drug discovery platform and was designed to selectively activate the G-protein signaling pathway, which should lead to a better efficacy/safety profile. In late September, Structure announced promising results from a Phase 1 multiple ascending dose study in non-diabetic overweight/obese individuals. Although there were only a few patients in the study, the drug impressively demonstrated reductions in mean body weight of up to 4.9% placebo-adjusted after 28 days, which would suggest a best-in-class profile. Then, in December, Structure announced results from its Phase 2a study, including a diabetic cohort and a non-diabetic overweight/obese cohort. The interim data from the obesity cohort continued to look competitive with 4.7% placebo-adjusted weight loss after 56 days. The diabetes data was somewhat underwhelming, with a 1.0% placebo-adjusted HbA1c reduction and 3.3% to 3.5% placebo-adjusted weight loss over 84 days (in comparison, Lilly’s orforglipron showed a 1.5% to 1.7% HbA1c reduction and 4.1% to 6.3% placebo-adjusted weight loss in a similar study). Structure is planning to study additional doses and titration regimens to optimize the drug’s profile in diabetes. Overall, we would characterize the early data as supportive of an active GLP-1 drug that has the potential to be among the leaders in the category. At this point we have a small position in the stock while we await more data to evaluate the competitiveness of Structure’s drug.”
A scientist in a lab coat observing a beaker with colored liquid as it bubbles and hisses.
Structure Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:GPCR) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 29 hedge fund portfolios held Structure Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:GPCR) at the end of third quarter which was 18 in the previous quarter.
We discussed Structure Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:GPCR) in another article and shared the list of best young stocks to buy and hold for 20 years. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q4 2023 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
