California’s giant redwood trees were once tiny sprouts or seeds. Likewise, the world’s biggest companies were once much smaller. Trees and companies can grow significantly over time — at least some of them.
Three Motley Fool contributors think they’ve found biotech stocks that have the potential to become much larger. Here’s why they think CRISPR Therapeutics (NASDAQ: CRSP), Zealand Pharma (OTC: ZLDP.F), and Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ: VKTX) are monster stocks in the making to buy right now.
CRISPR Therapeutics: The gears are in motion
Prosper Junior Bakiny (CRISPR Therapeutics): It’s always an important milestone for a clinical-stage biotech to launch its first product. That’s what happened with CRISPR Therapeutics last year. The gene-editing specialist earned approval for Casgevy, developed in collaboration with Vertex Pharmaceuticals, to treat sickle cell disease (SCD) and transfusion-dependent beta-thalassemia (TDT).
However, CRISPR Therapeutics’ breakthrough was significant for several other reasons. Let’s name two. First, there is a large unmet need in SCD and TDT, a need Casgevy will help fill where it is approved. Second, Casgevy became the first approved gene-editing treatment that uses the CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technique that earned its creators a Nobel Prize in chemistry.
Here’s why that matters. CRISPR Therapeutics uses this technique across its entire platform of investigational medicines. Until Casgevy, it had not yet proved that its technology could get medicines through all the necessary clinical and regulatory obstacles on the way to approval. With this win in the bag, CRISPR Therapeutics can confidently move forward. The company has many other exciting pipeline candidates. In the next five years, expect important progress from the company’s programs while it racks up solid and consistent revenue from Casgevy.
In short, CRISPR Therapeutics has many of the qualities necessary to succeed as a biotech company: a strategic focus on challenging targets, proven innovative abilities, and a rich pipeline. Though its market cap is hovering around $5…
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