ETF comparison
IBB vs VHT
Both Healthcare.
iShares Biotechnology ETF · Vanguard Health Care Index Fund ETF Shares
Holdings overlap
178 positions appear in both funds. Buying equal dollars of IBB and VHT would leave roughly 17.5% of each dollar exposed to the same underlying securities.
Side by side
Sub-score comparison
Tracking quality isn't part of the composite — see what we don't score for why.
Cost difference
VHT is 35 bps cheaper than IBB. On a $100,000 position that's about $350/yr more in fees for IBB.
Fee figure is the annual expense charged on $100,000. To see how the gap compounds over a multi-decade holding period, open the cost calculator pre-filled with IBB vs VHT.
Top shared holdings
178 shared in total| # | Holding | In IBB | In VHT | Overlap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Amgen, Inc. | 7.51% | 3.10% | 3.10% |
| 2 | Gilead Sciences, Inc. | 7.75% | 2.74% | 2.74% |
| 3 | Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Inc. | 7.44% | 1.89% | 1.89% |
| 4 | Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. | 7.21% | 1.21% | 1.21% |
| 5 | Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. | 3.99% | 0.65% | 0.65% |
| 6 | Insmed, Inc. | 3.20% | 0.47% | 0.47% |
| 7 | Biogen, Inc. | 2.46% | 0.42% | 0.42% |
| 8 | Natera, Inc. | 2.41% | 0.40% | 0.40% |
| 9 | United Therapeutics Corp. | 2.30% | 0.32% | 0.32% |
| 10 | Illumina, Inc. | 1.68% | 0.31% | 0.31% |
| 11 | Incyte Corp. | 1.70% | 0.25% | 0.25% |
| 12 | Moderna, Inc. | 1.68% | 0.24% | 0.24% |
Only in IBB
78 total- BlackRock Funds III 9.66%
- Argenx SE 3.07%
- BeOne Medicines Ltd. 1.93%
- Genmab A/S 1.17%
- Ascendis Pharma A/S 0.96%
- BioNTech SE 0.66%
- Abivax SA 0.50%
- Xenon Pharmaceuticals, Inc. 0.43%
- CRISPR Therapeutics AG 0.39%
- Centessa Pharmaceuticals plc 0.25%
Only in VHT
230 total- Eli Lilly & Co 12.54%
- Johnson & Johnson 8.74%
- AbbVie Inc 6.08%
- Merck & Co Inc 4.58%
- UnitedHealth Group Inc 3.94%
- Abbott Laboratories 3.00%
- Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc 2.92%
- Intuitive Surgical Inc 2.68%
- Pfizer Inc 2.33%
- Danaher Corp 2.01%
Open IBB or VHT at a brokerage
Both funds trade commission-free at major US brokerages.
Affiliate links — opening an account through these earns PlainIndex a one-time referral. Scoring is computed before any affiliate consideration; see our methodology and funding disclosure.
Holdings overlap is the sum of min(weight_a, weight_b) over positions
matched on ISIN (CUSIP fallback). Methodology: see
/methodology/.
Comparing two funds doesn't endorse swapping one for the other. Tax-lot history, account type, and personal goals matter — PlainIndex publishes data and methodology, not investment advice.