Veeva Systems

2 ABD / USA (VEEV, 274 $)

The cloud-computing revolution has at last come for life sciences, thanks to Veeva’s industry targeted offerings that help companies manage data-intensive processes such as clinical trials, regulatory submissions, and sales operations. The company, which counts leading biopharma companies like Pfizer, GSK, and Moderna as customers, has a market cap of $41 billion and has grown sales at a robust 26% annual rate over the past three years.

DexCom

8 ABD / USA (DXCM, 316 $)

DexCom makes medical devices that regularly track users’ glucose levels and can send those readings to a smartphone. The technology—called continuous glucose monitoring, or CGM—offers an alternative to people with diabetes who have long had to measure their blood sugar through finger-sticking. Adoption of DexCom’s devices drove revenue up 43% last year, but the company is finding a new market during COVID-19. Hospital staffs have been using the devices to remotely monitor COVID-19 patients’ glucose levels. Over the past five years, the stock is up 266%.

WuXi AppTec

12 ÇİN / CHINA
(SS: 603259, 17 $)

Shanghai-based WuXi helps global drugmakers discover, develop, and manufacture small molecule drugs as well as cell and gene therapies. Serving the world’s top drugmakers, WuXi is a leader in the pharma outsourcing sector, which continues to boom. The world has looked to the pharma sector this year to develop treatments and vaccines for COVID-19. WuXi has played a part in responding to the pandemic; it joined a global philanthropic alliance to discover novel antiviral therapeutics for COVID-19.

Shenzhen Mindray

Bio-Medical Electronics

21 ÇİN / CHINA
(SZ: 300760, 53 $)

Shanghai-based WuXi helps global drugmakers discover, develop, and manufacture small molecule drugs as well as cell and gene therapies. Serving the world’s top drugmakers, WuXi is a leader in the pharma outsourcing sector, which continues to boom. The world has looked to the pharma sector this year to develop treatments and vaccines for COVID-19. WuXi has played a part in responding to the pandemic; it joined a global philanthropic alliance to discover novel antiviral therapeutics for COVID-19.

Align Technology

26 ABD / USA (ALGN, 446 $)

The pandemic initially caused a lot of frowns at medical-device maker Align Technology as dentists’ offices around the globe temporarily shut down. But by October, the company was reporting record sales of its 3D scanners, which are used by dentists and orthodontists, as well as the company’s popular Invisalign clear plastic teeth straighteners. Third-quarter sales were up 21% over the year earlier. Align has long dominated the clear-aligners market with Invisalign, which is increasingly challenging the hegemony of traditional metal braces. Now Align is seeking to fend off competitors with high-profile endorsements from teen influencers, including TikTok superstar Charli D’Amelio and Black-ish actor Marsai Martin.

M3

36 JAPONYA / JAPAN

(T: 2413, 79 $)

The Sony-backed, online health care firm—whose name stands for “Medicine, Media, and Metamorphosis”—has dozens of subsidiaries that serve both pharma companies and 5.8 million physicians, with services ranging from marketing solutions to A.I.-based diagnostics. Over the past three years, M3 has averaged a 60% shareholder return.

Vertex Pharmaceuticals

40 ABD / USA (VRTX, 215 $)

In the fall of 2019, Vertex launched Trikafta, the latest of its breakthrough therapies for people with cystic fibrosis. Capable of treating up to 90% of those who suffer from the progressive, life-threatening disease, the drug has already been used to treat thousands of patients in the U.S. and recently won approval in the EU. The company’s sales—$4.2 billion in 2019—have averaged 35% annual growth over the past three years. One setback: The biotech’s stock fell 23% in October after it scrapped a new drug in Phase II clinical trials.

Jiangsu Hengrui

Medicine

42 ÇİN / CHINA
(SS: 600276, 13 $)

Jiangsu Hengrui is the largest pharmaceutical company in China and a leader in cancer treatment drugs and anesthetics for surgery. Its profit rose 14% in the first nine months of 2020, alongside a 15% jump in revenue. The company’s status as a domestic pioneer in novel drug development—its recent drug successes include immunotherapy medications and long-lasting insulin treatments—means it’s been hurt less than some of its peers by the Chinese government’s efforts to drive down generic drug prices. Over the past five years, Jiangsu’s stock is up some 350%.

Intuitive Surgical

44 ABD / USA (ISRG, 731 $)

As the maker of the pioneering da Vinci surgical systems, which use robotics to make surgery minimally invasive, Intuitive is on the cutting edge of health care. Now the question is whether the Sunnyvale, Calif., company can fend off a growing roster of rivals. The pandemic has temporarily slowed demand for the elective surgeries for which da Vinci systems are used. But the company is looking to make its $2 million surgical robots more affordable in order to extend their reach further in hospitals nationwide. Intuitive’s stock has quadrupled over the past five years.

Illumina

47 ABD / USA (ILMN, 301 $)

This maker of genetic sequencing equipment had a year of lows—and highs—thanks to COVID-19. Both revenue and net income were down in Q3 from the same period a year ago, yet the company’s dominant position in the fast-growing genetic sequencing market gives investors plenty of reason to be bullish. Illumina’s rapid COVID-19 test received emergency use authorization in July, and the company believes sequencing will become an important part of tracking the virus, pointing to Australia’s first national COVID-19 tracking system—which aims to sequence the virus genomes of all positive tests across the country. On the third-quarter earnings call, Illumina CEO Francis deSouza said the company is “making progress incorporating genomics into the standard of care in noninvasive prenatal testing, oncology therapy selection, and genetic disease diagnosis.” In September, Illumina’s stock dipped after it said it would spend $8 billion to reacquire a former spinoff, cancer blood test–maker Grail. DeSouza said he believes the unit will “catalyze a new era of early cancer detection, transforming cancer survivability and opening up the largest clinical application of genomics we’ve seen.”