How many biotech ETFs are there?

ETFIQ covers 7 US listed biotech ETFs as of Sep 18, 2026. That is every one it can measure from the fund’s own published holdings.

What is the largest biotech ETF?

FBT, First Trust NYSE Arca Biotechnology Index Fund, at $2.9bn in net assets, the largest of the 7 biotech ETFs with a published size as of Sep 18, 2026.

What is the cheapest biotech ETF?

PBPH, Portfolio Building Block World Pharma and Biotech Index ETF, at 0.13% a year, the lowest fee of the 7 biotech ETFs that publish one.

Which biotech ETF has performed best over the past year?

BBC, Virtus Biotech Clinical Trials ETF, at +95.6% total return over the year to Sep 18, 2026, the highest of the 6 biotech ETFs with a full year of trading behind them. Past returns do not predict future ones.

What do biotech ETFs hold?

Funds that hold drug developers, usually a broad basket of them rather than one field. Between them the 7 biotech ETFs ETFIQ can read name 49 companies in their ten largest holdings, most widely Gilead Sciences, Inc., which is among the ten largest of 4 of them.

Do biotech ETFs hold the same companies?

It depends which two. Across the 21 pairs of the 7 biotech ETFs with a full published book, BBH and IBBQ hold 54% of their weight in the same companies, BBC and FBT hold 0%, and the middle pair holds 20%. Two funds sold on one theme are not the same fund.

Data as of Sep 18, 2026.

Biotech ETFs: what each one holds

Funds that hold drug developers, usually a broad basket of them rather than one field. 7 funds, largest first, measured by holdings rather than by name. The typical fund carries 30% of its weight in S&P 500 names, which is the 25th most of the 53 themes here with filed books.

The short answers

How many there are: 7 US listed biotech ETFs, as of Sep 18, 2026.
The largest: FBT, First Trust NYSE Arca Biotechnology Index Fund, $2.9bn.
The cheapest: PBPH, Portfolio Building Block World Pharma and Biotech Index ETF, 0.13% a year.
Best one year total return: BBC, Virtus Biotech Clinical Trials ETF, +95.6%.
Least like the S&P 500: BBC, Virtus Biotech Clinical Trials ETF, 0.0% of its weight in S&P 500 companies.
Closest pair: BBH and IBBQ, 54% of their weight in the same companies.

What these funds actually own

Between them the 7 funds' ten largest holdings name 49 companies, of which 10 appear in more than one. Gilead Sciences, Inc. is among the ten largest of 4 of them, at an average of 7.5% of the fund.

Biotech ETFs, the companies their ten largest holdings name. Source: each fund's latest SEC filing or its issuer’s own daily holdings file, read by ETFIQ.
Company	Among the ten largest of	Average weight where it is	Largest, and in which fund
Gilead Sciences, Inc. GILD	4 of 7	7.5%	13.1% in BBH
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. REGN	4 of 7	5.2%	6.8% in BBH
Illumina, Inc. ILMN	4 of 7	3.9%	5.5% in PBE
Amgen Inc AMGN	3 of 7	8.8%	13.8% in BBH
Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc VRTX	3 of 7	7.0%	8.1% in BBH
Natera, Inc. NTRA	3 of 7	5.2%	5.7% in BBH
Moderna Inc MRNA	3 of 7	4.4%	6.5% in BBH
Revolution Medicines Inc RVMD	3 of 7	2.9%	4.8% in BBH
Biogen Inc BIIB	2 of 7	3.6%	5.1% in PBE
Roivant Sciences Ltd ROIV	2 of 7	2.0%	2.1% in BBP
ELI LILLY & CO	1 of 7	14.7%	14.7% in PBPH
JOHNSON & JOHNSON	1 of 7	9.1%	9.1% in PBPH
ABBVIE INC	1 of 7	6.5%	6.5% in PBPH
ROCHE HOLDING AG-GENUSSCHEIN	1 of 7	5.3%	5.3% in PBPH
Iqvia Holdings Inc IQV	1 of 7	5.2%	5.2% in BBH

The 15 most widely held of 49. Each fund files its whole book and this counts the ten largest out of it, so a fund missing from a row may still hold that company below its own tenth position. Weights are of the funds that name it, never of the theme.

Biotech ETFs: what each one holds, as of Sep 18, 2026. Source: ETFIQ.
Ticker	Fund	Issuer	Net assets	In the S&P 500	Active share	Total return 1Y	vs S&P 500	Fee
FBT	First Trust NYSE Arca Biotechnology Index Fund	First Trust	$2.9bn	23.6%	99.1%	+48.9%	+32.3 pts	0.55%
BBH	VanEck Biotech ETF	VanEck	$498m	60.4%	99.0%	+40.5%	+23.9 pts	0.35%
PBE	Invesco Biotechnology & Genome ETF	Invesco	$414m	30.0%	99.0%	+36.2%	+19.6 pts	0.59%
IBBQ	Invesco Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF	Invesco	$96m	38.6%	99.0%	+44.6%	+28.0 pts	0.19%
BBP	Virtus Biotech ETF	Virtus	$59m	12.4%	99.0%	+47.5%	+30.9 pts	0.34%
BBC	Virtus Biotech Clinical Trials ETF	Virtus	$37m	0.0%	100.0%	+95.6%	+79.0 pts	0.65%
PBPH	Portfolio Building Block World Pharma and Biotech Index ETF	Portfolio Building Block	$36m	56.8%	95.0%	listed 297 days	·	0.13%

How much of each pair is the same fund

The closest pair is BBH and IBBQ, which hold 54% of their weight in the same companies. The furthest apart is BBC and FBT at 0%. The middle pair of the 21 is 20%.

Biotech ETFs, the share of each pair’s weight held in the same companies. Read across or down; the figure is the same either way. Source: each fund’s own filed or daily holdings, read by ETFIQ.
	FBT	BBH	PBE	IBBQ	BBP	BBC	PBPH
FBT	·	45%	53%	33%	30%	0%	16%
BBH	45%	·	43%	54%	23%	1%	13%
PBE	53%	43%	·	38%	34%	2%	16%
IBBQ	33%	54%	38%	·	34%	17%	20%
BBP	30%	23%	34%	34%	·	0%	12%
BBC	0%	1%	2%	17%	0%	·	0%
PBPH	16%	13%	16%	20%	12%	0%	·

Weight overlap is the sum, over every company both funds hold, of the smaller of the two weights. Funds whose published book is cut short are left out rather than compared short, which would read as two funds being more different than they are.

What each fund holds alone

Biotech ETFs, the largest holding no other fund in the grid holds. Source: ETFIQ.
Fund	Largest holding it alone has	Weight	All of its own names
FBT	NeoGenomics, Inc. NEO	4.4%	11.4%
BBH	Iqvia Holdings Inc IQV	5.2%	8.4%
IBBQ	Guardant Health Inc GH	1.6%	11.5%
BBP	APELLIS PHARMACEUTICALS INC APLS	2.6%	7.2%
BBC	DIANTHUS THERAPEUTICS INC DNTH	1.5%	23.5%
PBPH	JOHNSON & JOHNSON	9.1%	64.2%

Questions people ask

How many biotech ETFs are there?: ETFIQ covers 7 US listed biotech ETFs as of Sep 18, 2026. That is every one it can measure from the fund’s own published holdings.
What is the largest biotech ETF?: FBT, First Trust NYSE Arca Biotechnology Index Fund, at $2.9bn in net assets, the largest of the 7 biotech ETFs with a published size as of Sep 18, 2026.
What is the cheapest biotech ETF?: PBPH, Portfolio Building Block World Pharma and Biotech Index ETF, at 0.13% a year, the lowest fee of the 7 biotech ETFs that publish one.
Which biotech ETF has performed best over the past year?: BBC, Virtus Biotech Clinical Trials ETF, at +95.6% total return over the year to Sep 18, 2026, the highest of the 6 biotech ETFs with a full year of trading behind them. Past returns do not predict future ones.
What do biotech ETFs hold?: Funds that hold drug developers, usually a broad basket of them rather than one field. Between them the 7 biotech ETFs ETFIQ can read name 49 companies in their ten largest holdings, most widely Gilead Sciences, Inc., which is among the ten largest of 4 of them.
Do biotech ETFs hold the same companies?: It depends which two. Across the 21 pairs of the 7 biotech ETFs with a full published book, BBH and IBBQ hold 54% of their weight in the same companies, BBC and FBT hold 0%, and the middle pair holds 20%. Two funds sold on one theme are not the same fund.

What the issuers say about this theme

The houses behind these biotech funds publish their own work on the subject. These are their pages and their words, not ETFIQ’s, and a fund company writing about a theme it sells a fund on is making a case. Read them that way.

Issuer material on this theme. Links leave ETFIQ. Source: each issuer’s own site.
Issuer	What they publish	Kind
First Trust	First Trust Investment Insights	Their research index
VanEck	VanEck Insights	Their research index
Invesco	Invesco insights	Their research index

Where to next

Where these figures came from

ETFIQ links to the documents behind every figure. It is not affiliated with any issuer, and a link is not an endorsement.

ETFIQ is an independent publisher and makes no recommendations; every figure is calculated from published data. Standards and sources

Cite this page. ETFIQ, Biotech ETFs: what each one holds, data as of Sep 18, 2026. https://etfiq.com/themes/biotech Free to use with attribution; the underlying files are at Open data.