Are you hungry for stocks that can produce market-beating gains? If so, there are some increasingly popular entrees on the biopharmaceutical industry's menu that deserve your attention.
Each for reasons of their own, shares of Bristol Myers Squibb (BMY -8.51%), Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX -0.76%), and AbbVie (ABBV -0.30%) keep soaring to new all-time highs. Here's how they could keep their prices moving in the right direction for years to come.
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Bristol Myers Squibb
Bristol Myers Squibb shares have risen 25% this year to reach an all-time high water mark for this well-established pharmaceutical giant. New safety and efficacy results from a clinical trial with an experimental drug for patients with abnormally thick hearts called mavacamten have been pushing the stock higher this month.
Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is one of the most commonly inherited heart conditions. It causes hearts to swell and limits their ability to pump blood.
Heart reduction surgery is a drastic intervention that HCM patients might be able to avoid with mavacamten if it earns approval as expected. During the phase 3 Valor trial, 82% of HCM patients treated with mavacamten had not proceeded with the surgery and were no longer eligible because their hearts slimmed down. That was 257% better than the group of patients who were randomized to receive a placebo.
If approved, mavacamten could become one of Bristol Myers Squibb's top-selling drugs, which is really saying something. Among the world's 10 best-selling pharmaceutical brands three are marketed by Bristol Myers Squibb.
Vertex Pharmaceuticals
Over the past three months, shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals stock have soared around 26% to a new all-time high. Investors have plenty of reasons to buy and hold shares of this innovative drugmaker. In addition to blockbuster cystic fibrosis treatments already on the market, there are some compelling new drug candidates in the company's development pipeline.
Vertex recently delighted the medical community with clinical trial results involving an experimental pain reliever called VX-548. Pain intensity reported by patients who received VX-548 after surgery fell significantly compared to a placebo.
Pain is so difficult to measure that clear signs of success like the ones VX-548 produced are rare. The company will begin pivotal studies with VX-548 in the second half of the year and an application for approval could be in front of the FDA by the end of 2023.
Vertex also has an experimental diabetes therapy designed to replace damaged insulin-producing islet cells in the pancreas. The first patient treated with a single administration showed measurable improvements. It's too early to claim victory, but there's a good chance this program could eventually morph into the first effective cure for over 1 million Americans living with type-1 diabetes.
With a potential cure for diabetes and a new pain reliever on deck, this drugmaker could keep hitting home runs.
AbbVie
Shares of this pharma stock reached a new all-time high last fall and it's been climbing ever since. AbbVie shares have climbed 29% this year and could keep climbing higher.
AbbVie's stock price has been on the way up because efforts to diversify away from its top-selling drug, Humira, are working. Humira's an inflammation-preventing drug for rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis that generated $20.7 billion in sales last year.
A slew of FDA-approved biosimilars will hammer Humira sales next year. Luckily, AbbVie has a pair of relatively new drugs aimed at most of Humira's addressable patient population. Rinvoq is an increasingly popular arthritis treatment and Skyrizi is a popular new psoriasis injection. AbbVie expects combined sales of Rinvoq and Skyrizi to exceed $15 billion in 2025.
A couple of years ago, AbbVie acquired Allergan and its Botox franchise. Fourth-quarter Botox sales rose 22% year over year to an annualized $5.2 billion. With Rinvoq and Skyrizi to offset upcoming Humira losses, AbbVie's Botox franchise could go a long way to lift its stock price over the next several years.
