Are you interested in stocks that can make huge gains? If so, you should know that investors like you found what they were looking for this year in the biotechnology and medical technology spaces.
Shares of these two innovators soared this year -- but what about 2023 and beyond? Here's what you should know about where these stocks have been and the direction they're likely to take in the future.
Image source: Getty Images.
1. Belite Bio: Up 209%
Shares of Belite Bio (BLTE 0.73%) are up about 209% this year. Investors have been piling into this clinical-stage biotechnology company thanks to encouraging early results from its lead candidate, LBS-008.
Belite Bio's lead candidate is an experimental treatment for Stargardt disease, a rare disease that leads to blindness. Patients with this inherited condition steadily lose vision because they can't clean up fatty deposits left over after the production of new retina cells.
Retina cell production is a process only possible in the presence of retinol, and LBS-008 works to limit how much retinol enters the eye. The company is running a global phase 3 trial that looks like it has a good chance to succeed. In October, the company said that nine out of 13 patients given LPB-008 in a phase 1 trial had stable visual acuity scores after one year of treatment.
Unlike most vision-related drugs, LBS-008 can be taken orally as a capsule. A lack of effective treatment options for Stargardt disease and related disorders means annual sales of Belite Bio's lead candidate could pass $500 million at its peak.
At recent prices, Belite Bio boasts a market cap of $829 million, so there's plenty of room for this stock to run higher.
2. TransMedics Group: Up 165%
TransMedics Group (TMDX -1.90%) is a medical technology company that is transforming organ replacement procedures. Its organ care system (OCS) replicates many aspects of a donor organ's natural environment. This is an enormous improvement over the current standard of care, which is essentially a cooler packed with ice.
Shares of TransMedics have soared about 165% this year in response to sales that keep exploding higher. Third-quarter revenue jumped a whopping 378% year over year and 25% compared to the previous quarter.
In 2021, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) green-lighted TransMedics systems for preserving hearts, livers, and lungs. To capitalize on the deluge of new opportunities, the company has invested heavily in its sales team, but those investments are beginning to pay off. Revenue has clearly started growing much faster than operating expenses.
TMDX Revenue (TTM) data by YCharts
TransMedics lost $29.5 million during the first nine months of 2022, but sales of its organ care systems are growing so fast that the company could begin generating a sustainable profit by the end of 2023.
There are a lot of expectations baked into TransMedics' stock price. At the moment, the company sports a $1.9 billion market cap. That's a lot for a company that reported net losses and just $72 million in total revenue over the past 12 months.
TransMedics looks like it has everything it needs to grow into its valuation. Viable donor organs are famously scarce, and its organ care system can help more of them become successful transplant procedures. Approvals from the FDA and hundreds of patents could help its organ care system become the standard of care and stay that way for a very long time. Adding some shares of this med-tech gem to a diversified portfolio looks like a smart move to make right now.
