TheStreet.com Ratings: Week's Best, Worst Health/Biotech Funds

In a landslide election, U.S. voters handed control of both houses of Congress to the Democratic Party. Overall, Wall Street cheered the move, banking on gridlock in Washington to restrain government spending in the absence of any other fiscal discipline.

But the political shift did put health care stocks and the mutual funds that hold them into play. For the most part, the movements of these funds were negative, as investors worried that the Democrats' early agenda would include scrutiny of big pharma's drugs that are still under patent.

The health care and biotech sector funds we rate lost an average of 1.21% for the five trading days ended Thursday, Nov. 9.

There were also some positive stories, however. Democrats tend to be pro-science. That means additional money may now be spent on stem cell science and other less controversial research.

Amazing breakthroughs are possible with the right funding. Just this week, a study showed that some vision could be restored to blind mice by implanting cells that restore degenerated rods.

The best performer for the five trading days ended Thursday was the Integrity Health Sciences Fund , which gained 2.44%. Its top holdings -- Amgen (AMGN - commentary - Cramer's Take), Merck (MRK - commentary - Cramer's Take) and Caremark Rx (CMX - commentary - Cramer's Take) -- fell 2.35%, 5.55% and 1.24%, respectively.

But these declines were offset by gains in other holdings, such as Boston Scientific (BSX - commentary - Cramer's Take), which edged up 0.3%, and Kos Pharmaceuticals (KOSP - commentary - Cramer's Take), which leapt 54.3% after agreeing to be acquired by Abbott Laboratories (ABT - commentary - Cramer's Take).

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Kevin Baker became the senior financial analyst for TSC Ratings upon the August 2006 acquisition of Weiss Ratings by TheStreet.com, covering mutual funds. He joined the Weiss Group in 1997 as a banking and brokerage analyst. In 1999, he created the Weiss Group's first ratings to gauge the level of risk in U.S. equities. Baker received a B.S. degree in management from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and an M.B.A. with a finance specialization from Nova Southeastern University.