CANC vs XBI

CANCDTema Oncology ETF

XBIAState Street SPDR S&P Biotech ETF

In short

CANC Most biotech funds buy the whole lab. CANC buys the cancer wing: an actively managed book of roughly 60 companies, with at least 80% of assets in firms that earn half their revenue or more from oncology.

XBI Biotech's great leveler. Its index weights roughly 160 US biotechs near-equally, so a clinical-stage minnow carries about as much as a megacap. Live since 2006 and one of the most heavily traded funds in the sector.

Stated mandate

CANC The Fund seeks long-term growth. Its principal strategy invests at least 80% of net assets in publicly listed companies deriving at least 50% of revenue from oncology.

XBI The fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the total return performance of the S&P Biotechnology Select Industry Index.

Why people hold it

• CANC The 50%-of-revenue test is the whole point. It screens for companies where cancer is the business, not a side project, then builds roughly 60 names around that.
• No oncology index to hug. A stock-picking team sets the portfolio, and the fund reports its results against the S&P 500 Total Return Index.stockanalysis.com
• Running since 2023, with a global mandate: the book can reach across US and European cancer franchises rather than stopping at the US border.stockanalysis.com

• XBI Modified equal weighting spreads exposure across roughly 160 biotechs instead of a handful of giants, so small drug developers actually move the fund.ssga.com
• 0.35% a year sits below the typical fee in its biotech peer group, which is unusual for a specialist sleeve this narrow.
• Among the most heavily traded funds in biotech and multi-billion-dollar in size, so getting in and out is rarely the hard part.
• A 2006 launch from State Street's SPDR line, meaning it has traded through several biotech booms and busts rather than one hot cycle. Pays quarterly.

Worth knowing

• CANC Costs 0.75% net of a waiver through June 28, 2027, versus 0.99% gross, and above the category median. Index peers IBBQ (0.19%) and XBI (0.35%) ask less.
• A small fund that trades thinly, so spreads can be wider and order size matters more than with the largest biotech baskets.
• Concentration cuts both ways: trial readouts, pricing policy and regulatory decisions in one disease area move this book. Distributions come annually or semiannually.

• XBI Equal weighting leans hard on smaller, clinical-stage names where a single trial readout moves a stock, so swings run deeper than cap-weighted rivals like IBB.ssga.comnasdaqomx.com
• Not the cheapest ticket on the shelf: Invesco's IBBQ charges 0.19% against XBI's 0.35%.
• One US industry only, drawn from the biotechnology segment of the S&P Total Market Index, so it can drift a long way from the broad market either direction.ssga.com

Full CANC profile⁠

Full XBI profile⁠