Are These The Best Health Care Stocks To Invest In This Month?
With growing geopolitical unrest, a hawkish Federal Reserve, and a shaky global economy, stocks seem to be under pressure. In theory, this would see health care stocks among other defensive stock market areas come into focus now. By and large, the current movement in stocks is not all that surprising. As the Fed looks to address rapidly rising inflation by raising interest rates accordingly, investors could be reconsidering their strategies. This would be where more essential industries like health care come into play.
For one thing, it is also important to remember that the coronavirus pandemic is still impacting the globe. Along with this comes the additional reliance on global health care systems. Because of this, governments across the world continue to pour resources into the industry. Just this week, Senate Republicans and Democrats reached a deal on additional pandemic funding. This round of funding consists of a whopping $10 billion. It will be going towards buying therapeutics and vaccines while maintaining testing capacities. This could see more support go towards biotech stocks that are linked to the fight against coronavirus.
At the same time, there remains plenty of activity among alternative health care players as well. On one hand, biotech giants like AbbVie (NYSE: ABBV) remain hard at work expanding their portfolios. This week, the company revealed positive top-line results from its presbyopia treatment pilocarpine in adults. On the other hand, UnitedHealth (NYSE: UNH) is extending its $8 billion acquisition of Change Healthcare as it irons out regulatory hurdles. Not to mention, cannabis stocks are also gaining traction as a federal legalization bill makes its way to the Senate floor. With all this in mind, here are three top health care stocks to note in the stock market today.
Health Care Stocks To Buy [Or Sell] Today
- Tilray Inc. (NASDAQ: TLRY)
- Merck & Company Inc. (NYSE: MRK)
- BioXcel Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: BTAI)
Tilray
Tilray is a medical cannabis company that is a leader in the cannabis lifestyle and consumer packaged goods. It has operations around the globe and continues to empower worldwide communities. It is a pioneer in cannabis research, cultivation, and distribution. In fact, Tilray’s unprecedented production platform supports over 20 brands that include comprehensive cannabis offerings, hemp-based foods, and alcoholic beverages. This week, TLRY reported its third-quarter earnings.
Diving in, the company posted a profitable quarter with a net income of $52.5 million. Net revenue also increased by 23% year-over-year to $152 million. Gross profit, on the other hand, rose by 31% compared to a year earlier to $39.8 million. The company continues to maintain its medical market share leader position in Europe and is also leading in Germany with a revenue growth of over 4,000%. Besides, it has maintained its No. 1 leading marketing share in Canada.
Irwin D. Simon, Tilray’s Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer stated, “Our third-quarter results reflect progress and momentum across all of our key business segments and geographies, setting the stage to achieve our target for $4B in revenue by the end of fiscal 2024. Tilray Medical – which now operates under a cohesive strategy and mission – has a near 20% share in Germany, providing clear benefits in its own right as well as a first-mover advantage that we will leverage as Germany and the EU move towards broader adult-use and medical use legalization.” Throughout the quarter, the company has also announced a slew of partnerships and acquisitions. All things considered, is TLRY stock worth investing in today?
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Merck & Co.
Another health care firm to consider now would be Merck, a multinational pharmaceutical company. With over 130 years of experience, the company has been bringing life-saving medicines and vaccines for many of the world’s most challenging diseases. Today, it continues to be at the forefront of research to treat and prevent diseases that threaten people and animals. This includes cancer, infectious diseases, and also emerging animal diseases.
On Monday, the company reaffirmed its commitment to enable broad equitable access to the company’s HPV vaccines. To further support this, the company has invested significantly in manufacturing, and recently expanded its vaccines manufacturing facility located in Elkton, VA, completing the construction of a 120,000 square feet facility and adding 150 new jobs at the site. This will help further increase the capacity and supply of the company’s HPV vaccines, following regulatory reviews and approvals.
On April 1, 2022, the company announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has extended the Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) date of the supplemental biologics license application (sBLA) for Vaxneuvance in infants and children to July 1, 2022. Vaxneuvance is a pneumococcal 15-valent conjugate vaccine and will help prevent invasive pneumococcal disease in children 6 weeks through 17 years of age and was granted priority review in December 2021. With that in mind, is MRK stock a buy today?
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BioXcel Therapeutics Inc.
Last but not least, we have BioXcel Therapeutics. In essence, it is a biopharmaceutical firm that employs artificial intelligence (AI) to develop transformative medicines in neuroscience and immuno-oncology. According to BioXcel, its drug re-innovation strategy “leverages existing approved drugs and/or clinically validated product candidates together with big data and proprietary machine learning algorithms.” In doing so, the company can identify and study new therapeutic indicators.
Notably, BioXcel provided some massive news on the operational front this week. This would be revolving its flagship drug candidate for the treatment of schizophrenia and bipolar I or II disorder, dexmedetomidine. Namely, the FDA has approved dexmedetomidine for the acute treatment of agitation associated with the aforementioned mental illnesses in adults. To put things into perspective, this would make it the first and only FDA-approved orally administered treatment in this field.
According to BioXcel, clinical trial findings suggest that the drug demonstrates an onset of action as early as 20 minutes. Worth mentioning, U.S. patient populations in these two categories experience up to 25 million agitation episodes annually. With a considerably fast-acting drug and a vast addressable market, BioXcel would have its work cut out for it. The company is currently expecting a U.S. commercial launch in the current quarter. Would all this make BTAI stock a top pick in your books?
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