There’s plenty of growth in store for biotech stocks down the road.
By 2024, the sector could rocket to $775 billion with plenty of catalysts. For one, we can’t stop people from aging — or from needing medical care. And in turn, this has made the sector virtually recession proof.
There’s also incredible new innovation that’s leading to game-changing treatments and leading to longer lifespans. Better still, big pharmaceutical companies are hunting for their next acquisition target among up-and-coming biotech companies. And, of course, we can’t forget the novel coronavirus biotech stocks racing to produce a desperately needed vaccine.
Therefore, with all of that in mind, some of the top biotech stocks to consider include:
So, let’s dive in.
Best Biotech Stocks for 2020: Moderna Inc. (MRNA)
Moderna is one of those coronavirus stocks I’m kicking myself for not backing up the truck with. When I first highlighted MRNA stock on April 30, it traded at just $45.82. Just weeks later, it’s up to $65.18 and could easily run to $80, in my opinion.
Moreover, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) just approved Moderna’s vaccine candidate for Phase II trials, where it will test it with 600 candidates. “We are accelerating manufacturing scale-up and our partnership with Lonza puts us in a position to make and distribute as many vaccine doses of mRNA-1273 as possible, should it prove to be safe and effective,” CEO Stéphane Bancel said.
It’s also finalizing plans for Phase III trials, which Moderna hopes to begin by this summer. That said, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases calls Moderna’s mRNA technology “really quite impressive.”
“These vaccines are inducing, at least in animal models, really rather substantial immune responses, particularly the mRNA vaccine,” Dr. Fauci said.
TG Therapeutics (TGTX)
The past few weeks, TG Therapeutics exploded from a May 2020 low of $10.83 to a recent high of $21.21. All after producing top-line results from its global UNITY-CLL Phase III trials evaluating a combination of drug treatments in patients with previously untreated and relapsed/refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).
And while numbers weren’t shared in the press release, TG Therapeutics did note that its combination of umbralisib plus ublituximab — or U2 — had a “significant improvement in progression-free survival, and will be stopped early for superior efficacy.”
Moreover, here is what John Gribben, M.D., a professor at Barts Cancer Institute in London, U.K, had to say about the trial:
“Today’s outcome marks the first successful Phase 3 trial of a PI3K delta-based regimen in a CLL patient population that included previously untreated patients. CLL remains incurable and new treatment options are still very much needed, particularly those that provide a differentiated mechanism and safety profile from our currently available treatment options.”
If TG Therapeutics cracked the code with CLL treatments, it may be able to dominate a market projected to hit $7.6 billion value by 2025.
Best Biotech Stocks for 2020: CRISPR Therapeutics (CRSP)
CRISPR Therapeutics is one of the top names when it comes to gene editing. The last time I weighed in on the stock was March 11, 2020 as CRSP traded at $42.66. It’s now up to $55.20, and still pushing aggressively higher.
Just this week, CRISPR and Vertex Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:VRTX) announced the FDA “granted Regenerative Medicine Advanced Therapy (RMAT) designation to CTX001, an investigational, autologous, gene-edited hematopoietic stem cell therapy, for the treatment of severe sickle cell disease (SCD) and transfusion-dependent beta thalassemia (TDT),” according to the companies’ latest press release.
However, this isn’t the only CRISPR treatment the market is excited about.
- Enrollment continues to assess the safety and efficacy of CTX110, its CAR-T therapy that targets refractory CD19+ B-cell malignancies
- Its testing patients in a clinical trial to assess safety and efficacy of CTX120, its CAR-T cell therapy that targets BMCA (B-cell mutation antigen) for the treatment of relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma.
- The FDA also accepted CRISPR’s Investigational New Drug (IND) application for CTX-130, its CAR-T cell therapy that targets CD70 for the treatment of solid tumors.
From here, if the CRSP stock can break above double top resistance at $60.91, I believe the stock could test a 2019 high of nearly $73.
Ian Cooper, a contributor to InvestorPlace.com, has been analyzing stocks and options for web-based advisories since 1999. As of this writing, he did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
