Americas Healthcare: Biotechnology: 2Q26 Earnings Preview: A higher bar now but still has room

Research evidence excerpt

Americas Healthcare: Biotechnology: 2Q26 Earnings Preview: A higher bar now but still has room

Equity Research

22 July 2026 | 7:26PM EDT

Americas Healthcare: Biotechnology: 2Q26 Earnings Preview: A higher

bar now but still has room

We think the biotech market still has room, but a volatile macro backdrop has Paul Choi

+1(212)902-5217 | paul.k.choi@gs.com

raised the bar for continuing outperformance. In spite of the recent pullback, Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC

biotech (as represented by the XBI) has meaningfully outperformed the broader Daniel Ni, Ph.D.

market YTD (see Exhibit 1) and is now at levels last seen in 2021 (Exhibit 2). Given the +1(212)902-2365Goldman Sachs & Co.| daniel.ni@gs.comLLC

velocity of the move (particularly in the month following the GS Global Healthcare

Conference) and the recent down move, investors are increasingly asking whether we

are in a solid, fundamentally based bull market vs. a bubble and what is required for

continued outperformance. While hindsight always provides greater clarity, we view

the fundamentals as still attractive and valuations overall are undemanding, which

bring to relief key differences for the current biotech market vs. the prior 2021 peak.

Among other factors, biotech performance 5 years ago was in part driven by

investors (both healthcare specialists and generalists) seeking thematic exposure to

COVID-19 vaccines/therapeutics and early-stage companies with preclinical or

Phase 1 candidates that had not yet been de-risked made up a significant portion of

capital markets activity. In the current environment, we would highlight that

fundamentals are being driven by both better than expected clinical success (e.g.,

daraxonrasib in KRASm PDAC, obefazimod and SPY001 in UC), sustained commercial