The pro football season kicks off tonight, and the Fool is getting in the spirit. Our fantasy team might just help you tear up the investing gridiron! Head this way to read all about the starting lineup.
No fantasy football team wins its league without a good offense, and no fantasy stock portfolio should be without a free cash flow scoring growth stock such as Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD).
The core of Gilead's star-studded drug lineup is its HIV franchise combination products like Atripla and Truvada. Sales of these compounds have juked and jived to more than $2 billion annually, with phenomenal growth rates in the past four years that show no signs of slowing:
|
HIV Franchise Product Sales |
Year-Over-Year Growth | |
|---|---|---|
|
2007 (first six months) |
$1.5 billion |
58% |
|
2006 |
$2.1 billion |
52% |
|
2005 |
$1.4 billion |
53% |
|
2004 |
$0.9 billion |
58% |
With Merck's (NYSE:MRK) novel anti-HIV integrase inhibitor getting healthy reviews from FDA statisticians last week as the drugmaker attempts to fast-track it through the agency, the future for Gilead's competing inhibitor, which is about to begin phase 3 testing, looks even brighter.
In June, Gilead received FDA approval for its pulmonary arterial hypertension drug, Letairis. Combined with an upcoming marketing application in the fourth quarter for its antibiotic to treat cystic fibrosis patients and the aforementioned integrase inhibitor, Gilead could have by 2010 at least three new drugs on the market early in their sales life cycles. These rookies all have peak sales potential of more than $500 million.
As I've mentioned before, Gilead has enough free cash flow to make any investor grab pompons and start cheering if it decides to return some of the cash in the form of a dividend or to continue share buybacks when the stock price is below fair value (like right now). Those looking to build a biotech fantasy football team should take a serious look at making Gilead their No. 1 draft pick.
