Are These The Best Health Care Stocks To Buy Right Now?
While retail traders digest news about rising inflation and the latest meme stocks, health care stocks remain viable plays. For one thing, the health care industry remains one of, if not, the most crucial sectors of business in the stock market today. From day-to-day care to groundbreaking new treatments, there is no shortage of innovations in the field.
As most would know, numerous countries across the globe continue to struggle against the pandemic. While countries like the U.S. are aiding global vaccine distribution efforts, we may not be out of the woods yet. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the coronavirus pandemic is outpacing the global vaccine distribution. Earlier this week, WHO director-general, Tedros Ghebreyesus said, “That means the risks have increased for people who are not protected, which is most of the world’s population.” Because of all this, maintaining a healthy immune system is more important than ever, especially with new coronavirus variants emerging. This would be where the top healthcare companies come into play.
For instance, we could look at top players such as CVS Health (NYSE: CVS) and UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH). In their recent quarter fiscals, both companies posted quarterly revenue of over $68 billion. Elsewhere, upcoming biotech names continue to make headlines as well. Just yesterday, Novavax (NASDAQ: NVAX) revealed that its vaccine candidate is safe and boasts an efficacy rate of 90.4%. All in all, I can understand if investors are looking for the best health care stocks to invest in. If you are one of them, here are five names trending in the stock market now.
Top Health Care Stocks To Watch Right Now
- Rapt Therapeutics (NASDAQ: RAPT)
- Clover Health Investments Corporation (NASDAQ: CLOV)
- Eli Lilly & Company (NYSE: LLY)
- Quidel Corporation (NASDAQ: QDEL)
- Ocugen Inc. (NASDAQ: OCGN)
Rapt Therapeutics Inc.
Rapt Therapeutics is a health care company that focuses on discovering, developing, and commercializing oral small molecule therapies. In brief, the company strives to conquer cancer and inflammatory diseases with its proprietary discovery and development engine. Impressively, in the first four years since its inception, Rapt has discovered and advanced two unique drug candidates, FLX475 and RPT193. RAPT stock currently trades at $38.34 as of 10:25 a.m. ET and has more than doubled in valuation in the last week. Investors seem to be responding to news that the company released on Monday.
Diving in, Rapt reported positive topline results from its Phase 1b trial for drug candidate RPT193. This monotherapy will treat atopic dermatitis (AD). Improvements were demonstrated in all key exploratory efficacy endpoints. The treatment was also well-tolerated with no serious adverse events. In light of this positive news, the company plans to advance its RPT193 candidate to Phase 2b clinical trials for AD. For these reasons, will you consider adding RAPT stock to your watchlist of top health care stocks?
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Clover Health Investments Corp.
Clover Health is a Preferred Provider Organization (PPO) and a Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) with a Medicare contract. Notably, it operates as a next-generation Medicare Advantage insurer, which leverages the company’s flagship software platform, the Clover Assistant. By empowering physicians with data-driven and personalized insights at the point of care, Clover Health strives to improve clinical decision-making and outcomes. CLOV stock has been up by over 80% since the start of June.
Last week, the company announced plans to scale its in-home primary care program, Clover Home Care, through the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) new Direct Contracting model. This would make the Medicare program more financially sustainable for taxpayers while improving health outcomes for beneficiaries. This could ultimately increase its customer base and help position Clover Health for long-term growth. All things considered, is CLOV stock worth watching right now?
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Eli Lilly and Company
Eli Lilly and Company (LLY) is a pharmaceutical company that is headquartered in Indiana and is a global health care leader. Founded more than a century ago, the company is committed to creating high-quality medicines that meet real needs. Among the company’s most notable achievements include being the first company to mass-produce the polio vaccine and insulin.
Today, the company announced that it will be conducting a head-to-head study comparing once-monthly injectable Emgality with Nurtec ODT, an orally disintegrating tablet migraine patients take every other day. The study will help clinicians and patients make more informed treatment decisions on the path to more migraine-free days. Given this piece of news, will you watch LLY stock?
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Quidel Corporation
Quidel is a leading manufacturer of diagnostic health care products. It delivers a wide array of rapid testing technologies that improve the quality of health care throughout the globe. Last week, the company received an amended emergency use authorization (EUA) for its new Sofia Q rapid antigen test device.
Sofia Q is the latest product in Quidel’s best-selling Sofia instrumentation portfolio. In essence, the rapid antigen test device utilizes Sofia fluorescent technology to provide an accurate and automated result within 15 minutes.
Douglas Bryant, president, and chief executive officer of Quidel Corporation had this to say, “We designed Sofia Q to be very affordably priced and conducive to widespread adoption across the ever-expanding global point-of-care and telemedicine marketplace. In the future, we believe Sofia Q will be ideal to serve consumers at home, as well as in schools and workplaces.” With that in mind, would you consider adding QDEL stock to your portfolio?
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Ocugen Inc.
Last but not least, we will be looking at biopharmaceutical company, Ocugen Inc. To begin with, the company mainly focuses on developing and commercializing gene therapies for blindness-related diseases. This year, OCGN stock remains a breakout player in the industry thanks to Ocugen’s involvement in co-developing a coronavirus vaccine. The vaccine in question is COVAXIN which is the result of a collaboration between Bharat Biotech and the Indian Council of Medical Research.
In brief, COVAXIN’s current track record is admirable with an efficacy rate of 78%. With Ocugen looking to bring COVAXIN to the U.S., OCGN stock would be on investors’ radars now. OCGN stock saw gains of over 15% during Tuesday’s trading session. This would likely be thanks to Ocugen securing a manufacturing partnership here in the U.S. Moving forward, Jubilant HollisterStier, a leading contract manufacturer of sterile injectables, will manufacture COVAXIN for the U.S. and Canada markets. Would this exciting development make OCGN stock a top buy for you now?
