2 Best Growth Stocks You Can Buy with $1,000 Right Now

The healthcare industry has proven to be a very resilient place for investors. Generally speaking, the types of products and services offered by companies in this sector are in constant need. As a result, these companies are often much less vulnerable to economic fluctuations than other industries.

This isn’t to say that the healthcare business hasn’t felt the volatility of the past few years, but there have been marked differences in the performance of many of these companies that may attract investors looking for consistent long-term returns.

If you have $1,000 to invest that you can sit for at least a few years, here are two names to consider.

1. Vertex Pharmaceuticals

Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX -0.96%) is not a household name, but it is making significant progress in shaking up the standard of care for many diseases in a truly accessible market. For many years it has been known as the cystic fibrosis drug, the only drug approved to treat the root cause of this genetic disease.

Recently, Vertex added a new product to its portfolio with the approval of CRISPR-based therapy Casgevy. Vertex was developed in collaboration with: CRISPR therapeuticsIt is a potential treatment for sickle cell disease and transfusion-dependent beta thalassemia.

Casgevy has been approved in the US, UK, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain and is awaiting approval from European Union (EU) regulators. Vertex is awaiting approval for ‘Casgebi’ in Switzerland and plans to seek approval in Canada in the first half of this year.

Looking at Vertex’s very promising pipeline, a number of potential blockbuster films are coming to the spotlight. One is a non-opioid candidate for acute pain called VX-548. The drug shows significant promise in multiple clinical settings, including surgical and non-surgical pain, offering disruptive potential across the broader overall market.

The company is also advancing several promising candidates into early-stage clinical trials. One is a treatment for a type of muscular dystrophy called myotonic dystrophy, which affects about 110,000 patients in Europe and North America, but there is no approved treatment for it.

The other is a treatment for autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD), which has more than 250,000 patients in the United States and Europe alone. ADPKD currently has no cure. Currently, the standard treatment for most patients is dialysis or kidney transplantation.

As Vertex looks to the future within the rare disease drug market, it has financial strength with billions of dollars in profits and revenues flowing in each year. It seems like a stock worth holding for the long term.

2. Regeneron Pharmaceuticals

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (rain -0.70%) It is a biotechnology company primarily known for two blockbuster drugs. The first is Dupixent. Sanofi. The other is Eylea, which shares marketing rights. Bayer.

Dupixent is an approved treatment for several conditions, including moderate to severe atopic dermatitis, a chronic skin condition called prurigo nodosum, and as an additional treatment for moderate to severe asthma. Eylea is also approved for a variety of diseases, including diabetic retinopathy and wet age-related macular degeneration.

Exclusivity on existing Dupixent patents will continue until early next decade, but approvals for new indications could extend the drug’s revenue potential for even longer. For example, Regeneron is currently seeking approval for Dupixent as a treatment for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and type 2 inflammation.

COPD patients with type 2 inflammation account for 20% to 40% of the overall COPD patient population. Dupixent’s label expansion for this disease will open up a new market of approximately 300,000 people.

COPD affects approximately 12 million patients in the United States alone. last year, Evercore Adding COPD as an approved indication for Dupixent could boost sales of the drug to more than $20 billion annually by the end of the decade, analyst Josh Schimmer wrote in a note.

And while Eylea was due to lose patent exclusivity last year, Regeneron’s filing of several ancillary product patents now means its last patent won’t expire until 2040.

Dupixent will have total global sales of $12 billion in 2023, up 33% from 2022. Meanwhile, Eylea recorded $5.7 billion in U.S. product sales over the 12 months. Eylea HD, a higher-dose version of the drug approved last year, generated $166 million in U.S. sales last year.

Looking at Regeneron’s 2023 financial performance, it had revenue of $13 billion and net income of $4 billion. While that net income figure was down single digits year-over-year, revenue was up 8% from a year ago.

Another driving force behind Regeneron’s 2023 performance was Libtayo, an anticancer drug developed in collaboration with Sanofi. Libtayo’s global sales will reach $869 million in 2023, a 50% increase from the previous year.

This biotech stock has delivered a total return of about 133% over the past five years, which is about 30% higher than before. S&P 500It’s the return of around the same time. Regeneron is not a lightning-fast growth stock. But steady revenue, ongoing profitability, and overall promise for current and potential products make it an obvious buy for long-term healthcare investors.