The Advanced Medical Impact Equity Fund's new Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities (UCITS) focused on investing in healthcare companies that are positioned for high growth and making positive social impacts.

A UCITS exists to manage collective investments in securities and other financial assets.

The 2021 Advanced Medical Impact launch, created in collaboration with Nomura Asset Management, looks to actively invest in 30 to 50 global healthcare companies that have been selected for their capacity to create both returns and meaningful social impacts by addressing unmet medical needs.

These are predominantly located in the sectors of new treatments for diseases and neurological disorders, enhancing the productivity of equipment, services, and software, access to medicines and health care services, and new solutions for lowering health care costs.

Companies in the Advanced Medical Impact Equity Fund portfolio spent more than $81 billion on research and development in 2021. Over 2,282 active clinical trials were conducted, and approximately 155 million US retail prescriptions were written for portfolio companies' products.

Michael Li, senior portfolio manager for the investment firm American Century, said: "The global pandemic has underscored the need for quality health care.

"There are approximately 600 million people worldwide age 65 years and over, so there's a rising demand for health care services, as well as increasing wealth levels in developing countries such as China and India in particular, to access quality care.

"This will place significant stress on health care systems, so we need to invest in infrastructure and capacity. However, innovations leading to new treatments and improvement in access, cost, and productivity will be a primary means to address the issue.

"The new UCITS invests in important health care innovations that we believe will have a positive impact on society."