International Biotechnology Trust

International Biotechnology Trust

The International Biotechnology Trust launched in 1994 as a UK investment trust, listing on the London Stock Exchange to give public-market investors exposure to biotechnology. Its board is chaired by Kate Cornish-Bowden, and the trust operates under the regulatory framework of an investment company, meaning it can pay dividends linked to its portfolio performance. The trust maintains a split-portfolio strategy. On one side, it holds a concentrated basket of listed biotechnology and life-science equities. Confirmed public positions historically included names such as Vertex Pharmaceuticals and Gilead Sciences, alongside smaller-cap precision-medicine developers. On the other, it owns a legacy portfolio of unquoted venture capital funds managed by SV Health Investors — including SV Fund VI and the SV Biotech Crossover Opportunities Fund (BCOF) — investing in preclinical and Phase I/II drug programs. In Q4 2025, the trust deepened its private-market exposure by forming a new limited partnership with Schroders Capital, which now selects and manages its unquoted biotech commitments. Geographically, the portfolio spans the US biotechnology corridor in Boston and the Bay Area, as well as European clusters in Cambridge, UK and Zurich. Team and operational details are disclosed through the trust's board and its external managers. Kate Cornish-Bowden serves as Independent Non-Executive Chair, and the investment functions are fully delegated to specialized life-science managers. SV Health Investors remained responsible for the legacy venture assets even after the November 2023 transition in management responsibilities. In October 2025, the trust announced a new limited partnership structure with Schroders Capital to manage all forward-looking unquoted biotechnology allocations. The trust's structural differentiator is its publicly traded wrapper around an otherwise illiquid private venture portfolio — a rare architecture where retail and institutional investors can buy shares in a vehicle that co-owns venture-stage drug-development assets alongside a team of dedicated life-science venture managers. This hybrid structure separates the trust from both pure listed-biotech ETFs and closed-end venture funds, creating a liquidity bridge between public markets and preclinical drug investing.