Life-Science Maven Investor Isaly, Others Add To Merck Positions

Market Watch notes that -- as of the end of Q3, 2012, the legendary Sam Isaly and his OrbiMed entities had more than doubled down on Merck. That trend-line is telling. Isaly has long held a large Pfizer stake, but has been an aggressive buyer of Merck throughout 2012 -- will that continue in 2013?

We will have to wait a few weeks to see. We should have his year end 2012 holdings before Valentines Day. Here's a bit of the Market Watch story I mentioned:

. . . .Orbimed reported a position of 4.6 million shares in Merck, a 33% increase from three months earlier.

Point State Capital, which is managed by Sean Cullinan and other former portfolio managers at billionaire Stanley Druckenmiller's Duquesne Capital, was also a heavy buyer of Merck. Merck, similarly to Pfizer, carries trailing and forward P/E multiples of 19 and 12 respectively. Its financial performance has been steady. . . .

Anyone who has been around life sciences investing for a bit knows what a sharp operator Isaly is. I'll report where his holdings stand when he files his latest Section 13 reports at the SEC in the second week of February -- but I'd not bet against him -- not in life sciences, anyway.

Merck and Pfizer are now over 12 percent of his entire managed fund's dollar value. Wow.