NEW YORK, Dec. 17, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Nasdaq today announced that LifeSci Index Partners, LLC, will list two new exchange-traded funds, the BioSharesTM Biotechnology Clinical Trials Fund (Symbol: BBC) and the BioSharesTM Biotechnology Products Fund (Symbol: BBP), on The Nasdaq Stock Market. BBC and BBP will begin trading today, December 17, 2014.
"The landscape of the biotechnology sector has experienced dramatic shifts since the initial public offerings of Cetus and Genentech in the early 1980s," said Paul Yook, Co-Founder of LifeSci Index Partners. "Our BioShares funds are designed with the current biotechnology market in mind and offer investors unique and diversified portfolios of entrepreneurial biotechnology stocks by applying our rules-based index methodology."
BBC is a fund that seeks to track an index of biotechnology companies with a principal focus on running human clinical trials. BBP is a fund that seeks to track an index of biotechnology companies with one or more drugs approved by the FDA and in commercial production. For the first time, ETF investors can choose from these two distinctly different groups of stocks that are typically grouped together in other funds. The LifeSci Indexes are calculated and disseminated by an independent third party, Indxx, LLC.
Both funds employ an equal weighting approach that allows each security's performance to affect the ETF equally, regardless of the size of the company. In this way, a relatively small firm enjoying a major breakthrough can have a meaningful impact on the ETF. An equal weighting also serves to minimize the outsize impact that a handful of mega-cap biotech companies can have on more traditional, market-cap weighted indexes.
"We are pleased to welcome the innovative BioShares product suite to The Nasdaq Stock Market," said Jeff McCarthy, Vice President, Head of ETP Listings & Services at Nasdaq. "We are committed to strengthening our partnership with BioShares, supporting them through the entire product lifespan and introducing them to one of the single largest pools of liquidity."
Nasdaq operates an efficient platform for successfully introducing a product suite into one of the single largest pools of liquidity, including market participants which represent a full spectrum of investors. ETF issuers benefit from an end-to-end solution that provides ongoing product support including index licensing, listings opportunities, data offerings and trading services. As the home to some of the world's most innovative ventures, Nasdaq generates opportunities for issuers to access new markets and deliver new concepts that change the way the industry develops, manages and applies ETFs.
About LifeSci Index Partners, LLC:
LifeSci Index Partners, LLC is an index provider of biotechnology-focused stock market indices and also serves as the investment sub-advisor for the BioShares exchange traded funds. The principals of our firm are also founders of and/or are affiliated with LifeSci Advisors, LLC, a unique investor relations consultancy founded to provide companies in the life sciences a comprehensive solution to investor communications and outreach. For more information, please visit www.bioshares.com.
About Nasdaq:
Nasdaq (Nasdaq:NDAQ) is a leading provider of trading, exchange technology, information and public company services across six continents. Through its diverse portfolio of solutions, Nasdaq enables customers to plan, optimize and execute their business vision with confidence, using proven technologies that provide transparency and insight for navigating today's global capital markets. As the creator of the world's first electronic stock market, its technology powers more than 70 marketplaces in 50 countries, and 1 in 10 of the world's securities transactions. Nasdaq is home to more than 3,500 listed companies with a market value of over $8.8 trillion and more than 10,000 corporate clients. To learn more, visit www.nasdaq.com/ambition or www.nasdaqomx.com.
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