Edwards Lifesciences Corp: EW Stock Is at the Heart of Innovation

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Edwards Lifesciences Corp (EW) may not be a household name, but in the cardiovascular and hematology departments of your hospital, it’s as familiar and appreciated as a name can be.

Edwards Lifesciences Corp: EW Is at the Heart of InnovationIts product line is specifically designed to help people with structural heart disease issues. In layman’s terms, that means it builds artificial heart valves to replace failing ones, and also has a number of complementary lines of devices such as stents (which keep veins and arteries open that may have collapsed), catheters to remove blood clots and other therapeutic and diagnostic products and services.

What most people don’t realize is, technology in healthcare has advanced as fast — if not faster — than personal technology. And given that advance, more people are able to use the products that EW makes to improve quality of life for many more people.

What’s more, now that the Affordable Care Act is law, there are clear guidelines on the kind of care — and devices — that is preferred. This is the part of the ACA that investors need to understand.

How Quality Over Quantity Helps EW Stock

It is no longer about the quantity of care, which led to abuse of the Medicare and Medicaid systems (the medical community’s largest source of income). It is now about quality of care. That means outcomes are important.

Also, using new technologies that are initially more costly to improve outcomes is more acceptable than treating a patient with a lower tech alternative that may mean a constant stream of doctor visits and prescription drugs.

One of the clearest examples of this is the new group of drugs to treat Hepatitis C, a liver disease that can cause liver failure and death at worst, and a lifetime of drug therapy at best. Merck & Co., Inc. (MRK), Gilead Sciences, Inc. (GILD) and others are already major players.

These new drugs are taken over about a three month period and cure more than 90% of the hep C patients. The thing is, the treatment costs around $85,000, or around $1,000 a pill.

But, with ACA it’s the outcome that is encouraged. And bear in mind, that many hep C patients that get traditional treatments will end up needing a liver transplant at some point. Those start around $500,000.

As for EW, in early April it announced that its SAPIEN 3 transcatheter heart valve was showing superior results versus open-heart surgery after one year.

Not only is the transcather aortic valve replacement surgery less invasive and more effective, it also cost one-third what it cost for open-heart surgery.

That’s why the stock soared more than 15% in the past 5 days.

And it’s very likely this is just the beginning, since this TAVR technology is only available to a limited number of patients. EW will likely look to expand its usage and the government will likely more than happily go along.

Louis Navellier is a renowned growth investor. He is the editor of five investing newsletters: Blue Chip Growth, Emerging Growth, Ultimate Growth, Family Trust and Platinum Growth. His most popular service, Blue Chip Growth, has a track record of beating the market 3:1 over the last 14 years. He uses a combination of quantitative and fundamental analysis to identify market-beating stocks. Mr. Navellier has made his proven formula accessible to investors via his free, online stock rating tool, PortfolioGrader.com. Louis Navellier may hold some of the aforementioned securities in one or more of his newsletters.

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Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, https://investorplace.com/2016/04/ew-stock-heart-innovation/.

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