Right now, there's a major shift underway in the biotech field that's creating a brand-new $59.2 billion industry. And investors who get in now could be positioning themselves for triple- or even quadruple-digit gains...
That's why we're bringing readers one of the best biotech stocks to buy in December 2017, according to Money Morning Director of Technology & Venture Capital Research Michael A. Robinson.
You see, there has long been a "one-size-fits-all" approach when it comes to treating illness.
Sure, we can put every individual's condition into a spreadsheet and crank out a mathematically "average human," but very few people actually have that average set of health characteristics.
Robinson says this has created an emerging field known as precision medicine.
The goal is to determine and target each person's unique set of genes, environment, and lifestyle. The result would be higher efficiency treatment.
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Similar to the way the iPhone brought together communications, entertainment, research, and even flashlights, precision medicine will unite traditional medicine, molecular biology, data analysis, and cloud computing.
In fact, global market research and consulting firm Mordor Intelligence says the precision medicine market alone will be worth $59.2 billion by 2021.
But it goes beyond the noble pursuit of making people healthier - it's also part of a drive to lower the nation's $1.7 trillion healthcare tab. And it has the full backing of the U.S. government.
Last year, Congress approved spending roughly $215 million on a National Institutes of Health Precision Medicine Initiative in order to "pioneer a new model of patient-powered research."
Robinson has been researching this trend intently, looking for the best biotech stocks poised to profit immediately. And he's found a biotech stock at the heart of this biotech revolution.
Here's the pick...
This Is One of the Best Biotech Stocks to Buy in December 2017
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The best way to profit from precision medicine is with Illumina Inc. (Nasdaq: ILMN) stock. It is one of the few direct investments you can make and it is already up 70% this year.
Illumina develops, manufactures, and markets integrated systems for genetic analysis. Its customers include genomic research centers, academic institutions, government laboratories, and hospitals.
Sales have doubled in the past five years to $2.4 billion in 2016, thanks to its ability to sequence an entire human genome for about $1,000. It cost $1 million to do it when the technology was new, so Illumina's falling price points have opened up a broad range of new medical advances.
It's helping biologists rapidly track new viruses before they can infect entire populations. It's helping biotech firms make more advanced drugs. And it's allowing gene sequencing to play a growing role in forensic sciences.
Michael Robinson listed the following advances in his research report:
- The firm's high-ticket machines can analyze single nucleotide polymorphing (SNP), bringing deep insights into the root causes of diseases.
- Illumina's systems can identify all of the ways a specific gene can impact a body's health, an area known as gene expression.
- And Illumina is a leading equipment provider in the emerging field of proteomics. This is an even more complex approach than genomics. A genome is more or less constant, but proteomes differ from cell to cell and from time to time. This should profoundly impact doctors' ability to spot disease at an early stage. And it will help doctors deploy altered proteins to beat back cancer and other diseases.
- Now, Illumina is making a big push into cancer research, thanks to a 2015 agreement with Merck Serono. These two firms are creating a universal test system for clinical trials of targeted cancer therapies.
And that specifically speeds up the rise of precision medicine.
Illumina's 70% Gains in 2017 Are Just the Start
Third-quarter sales rose 18%, and adjusted earnings grew a more impressive 34%.
And with more than $2 billion in cash on its balance sheet, Illumina has the resources to extend its industry leadership in genomics far into the future.
The firm spends around $125 million on R&D each year, and a key new area of focus involves agrigenomics. The firm's agriculture-focused genomics gear is helping plant and animal breeders and researchers identify desirable traits, leading to healthier and more productive crops and livestock.
This was not lost on Wall Street, as the average ranking on the stock assembled by MarketWatch rates it as "Overweight." And investors agree, as the stock surged 4.1% Nov. 27 to score a technical breakout to the upside. News that the company won the infringement suit against Ariosa Diagnostics and Premaitha Health last week was part of the reason.
The point is that we're still in the early innings of the precision medicine revolution, and Illumina is uniquely positioned to profit.
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