Looking for broad exposure to the Healthcare - Biotech segment of the equity market? You should consider the VanEck Biotech ETF (BBH), a passively managed exchange traded fund launched on December 20, 2011.

While an excellent vehicle for long term investors, passively managed ETFs are a popular choice among institutional and retail investors due to their low costs, transparency, flexibility, and tax efficiency.

Investor-friendly, sector ETFs provide many options to gain low risk and diversified exposure to a broad group of companies in particular sectors. Healthcare - Biotech is one of the 16 broad Zacks sectors within the Zacks Industry classification. It is currently ranked 10, placing it in bottom 38%.

Index Details

The fund is sponsored by Van Eck. It has amassed assets over $462.7 million, making it one of the average sized ETFs attempting to match the performance of the Healthcare - Biotech segment of the equity market. BBH seeks to match the performance of the MVIS US Listed Biotech 25 Index before fees and expenses.

The MVIS US Listed Biotech 25 Index tracks the overall performance of companies involved in the development and production, marketing and sales of drugs based on genetic analysis and diagnostic equipment.

Costs

When considering an ETF's total return, expense ratios are an important factor, and cheaper funds can significantly outperform their more expensive counterparts in the long term if all other factors remain equal.

Annual operating expenses for this ETF are 0.35%, making it one of the least expensive products in the space.

Sector Exposure and Top Holdings

Even though ETFs offer diversified exposure which minimizes single stock risk, it is still important to look into a fund's holdings before investing. Luckily, most ETFs are very transparent products that disclose their holdings on a daily basis.

This ETF has heaviest allocation in the Healthcare sector -- about 100% of the portfolio.

Looking at individual holdings, Amgen Inc (AMGN) accounts for about 16.17% of total assets, followed by Gilead Sciences Inc (GILD) and Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc (VRTX).

The top 10 holdings account for about 71.48% of total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

The ETF return is roughly 21.89% so far this year and is up roughly 39.46% in the last one year (as of 09/16/2026). In that past 52-week period, it has traded between $161.023 and $244.017.

The ETF has a beta of 0.70 and standard deviation of 19.89% for the trailing three-year period, making it a high risk choice in the space. With about 26 holdings, it has more concentrated exposure than peers.

Alternatives

VanEck Biotech ETF holds a Zacks ETF Rank of 2 (Buy), which is based on expected asset class return, expense ratio, and momentum, among other factors. Because of this, BBH is an excellent option for investors seeking exposure to the Health Care ETFs segment of the market. There are other additional ETFs in the space that investors could consider as well.

iShares Biotechnology ETF (IBB) tracks Nasdaq Biotechnology Index and the State Street SPDR S&P Biotech ETF (XBI) tracks S&P Biotechnology Select Industry Index. iShares Biotechnology ETF has $10.28 billion in assets, State Street SPDR S&P Biotech ETF has $10.19 billion. IBB has an expense ratio of 0.44%, and XBI charges 0.35%.

Bottom Line

To learn more about this product and other ETFs, screen for products that match your investment objectives and read articles on latest developments in the ETF investing universe, please visit Zacks ETF Center.

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VanEck Biotech ETF (BBH): ETF Research Reports

This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

Zacks Investment Research