2 Best Healthcare Stocks to Buy Right Now

The healthcare industry may not be as hot with investors as artificial intelligence or other high-flying industries, but the range of essential needs these businesses serve provides opportunities ripe for investor cash in a range of market environments. From life-saving medicines to medical devices, people require these products and services no matter what is happening with the broader economy. 

For long-term investors, that can pose a tempting buying proposition in both bull and bear market environments. If you're looking for top healthcare stocks to add cash to this month, here are two names to consider when you do. 

1. Vertex Pharmaceuticals 

Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX -0.06%) is one of those healthcare businesses that has proven its ability to penetrate, expand, and disrupt markets where patients have historically had few to no options to treat rare medical conditions. Over the last decade, Vertex has seen profits and cash rise by respective amounts of about 1,200% and 530%.  

This goes back to the success of its core business, a franchise of medicines that target the underlying genetic cause of cystic fibrosis. Even though Vertex is the only company with drugs on the market that serve that function, management still estimates that there are tens of thousands of patients globally who could benefit from its current drugs but aren't taking them yet. These aren't one-and-done treatments either, but drugs that patients generally need to take twice daily.  

Now, Vertex is looking to replicate its success with its cystic fibrosis drug franchise in other lucrative markets. It's working on a stem-cell-based therapy for type 1 diabetes with the goal of developing a functional cure for the condition. Bear in mind, there are close to 3 million people with Type 1 diabetes in Europe and North America alone. The company is also developing what would be the first functional cure for the rare kidney disorder APOL1-mediated kidney disease. The condition afflicts more than 100,000 people just in the U.S. and Europe.

While both of these candidates each represent multi-billion-dollar opportunities for Vertex, investors should be watching in the coming months for the much-anticipated regulatory decisions on exa-cel, its rare blood disorder candidate that would be the first functional cure for both sickle cell disease and transfusion-dependent beta thalassemia. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expected to release its review decision about approving the drug to treat sickle cell disease by Dec. 8.

Because this profitable business has its fingers in so many pies, it could easily be first to market in multiple other underpenetrated sectors besides cystic fibrosis. Long-term investors may find this growth story warrants a long, hard second look.  

2. DexCom 

DexCom (DXCM -9.90%) develops and sells continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) systems that it sells to healthcare providers and people living with diabetes. Last year, the company launched the latest generation of its flagship CGM device, the G7, marketed as being the most accurate as well as the most widely insured of any such device on the market. 

Approvals for the device have expanded globally over the last year from the U.S. to Europe to Asia to Africa. For example, the G7 was just approved in Canada in early October for all diabetics aged two and up. There are roughly 12 million people living with diabetes or prediabetes in Canada alone.  

As regulatory approvals for the G7 have continued, DexCom has raked in revenue and profits at a rapid clip, building on a strong track record of financial growth. DexCom's revenue for the first half of 2023 totaled $1.6 billion, while net income came in at $165 million. Those figures represented respective increases of 22% and 11% from the same period in 2022.  

The company ended the most recent quarter with about $3.6 billion in cash and investments on its balance sheet. The demand for effective diabetes management tools isn't going anywhere, even as therapeutic options to manage the disease hit the market. In fact, CGMs are often used in conjunction with diabetes drugs like Eli Lilly's Mounjaro.

If you were to look at DexCom's stock alone, its roughly 25% decline from the start of the year might give you pause. But a closer look at the continued demand for its products -- which has translated to impressive balance sheet gains -- could tell a different story.