There are great companies, and there are companies that do great things in the marketplace…and for your health.

The latter is the kind of company I’m talking about here.

And it’s the reason why its stock has soared and will continue to soar as the years roll on….

Twenty Years of Coverage Helped Me Isolate This Pick

[ad#Google Adsense 336×280-IA]This isn’t a story I just came upon while running my screens one night.

I’ve been following developments involving multiple sclerosis (MS) therapies for more than 20 years.

It all goes back to a four-part series I wrote while working as a biotech analyst at the Oakland Tribune.

My series focused on the release of Betaseron, a genetically altered protein designed to lessen the number and severity of MS attacks.

This was in the early days of the biotech revolution, which has not only spawned some of the greatest medical discoveries but some of the greatest wealth-creating opportunities.

This drug had plenty of critics who complained about serious side effects like insomnia and depression.

However, it also was the first FDA-approved drug found to alter the course of this debilitating autoimmune disease – one known to cause severe inflammation that can impact walking, vision, and speech. It can severely shorten its victims’ life expectancy as well as their ability to enjoy their remaining years.

Approved in 1993, the drug is still on the market today and is sold by a unit of Bayer AG (OTCMKTS ADR: BAYRY). It ranks as the interferon, a human protein, with the longest record of clinical effectiveness and safety.

But in recent years, there’s another biotech leader that has helped revolutionize MS treatment. So much so that its portfolio of approved MS drugs has become a major catalyst driving the stock up 632% in the past five years.

What’s more, this very same biotech – one of the first to emerge in the 1970s – is now focusing its attention on another insidious and even more pervasive disease: Alzheimer’s.

The company also has a number of well-regarded drugs in the marketplace that have helped patients with B-cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, rheumatoid arthritis, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, and hemophilia.

A Company on the Move

I’m talking about Biogen Inc. (Nasdaq: BIIB), a global big-cap player that operates at the forefront of life sciences as though it were still a small, clinical-stage firm.

Consider that earlier this year the company announced it was partnering with Google Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG, GOOGL). Biogen and Google’s futuristic X labs are using sensors, software, and data analysis tools to explore why MS progresses differently in each patient.

Earlier, Biogen had initiated a project with Fitbit, using the company’s activity trackers to gather data on MS patients. The Google partnership is an extension of that kind of thinking – using sensors to track the real-time medical data and also analyze all the Big Data to look for clues in treating and getting ahead of MS.

This digital health approach also has huge implications for understanding all sorts of complex diseases, from cancer to Parkinson’s. It highlights the kind of creative partnering that has made Biogen such a force in the industry.

And as you can see from the continued advance in Biogen’s stock, the focus on innovation is richly rewarding the company’s investors.

It’s Not Too Expensive and Here’s Why

No doubt, 632% in five years is quite an advance.

Priced at roughly $420 a share, Biogen will strike many as expensive. But let’s remember, that just because a stock has a high “sticker price” doesn’t make it expensive on a relative basis.

As with all stocks, whether they trade at $10 or $1,000, the question is: how much upside can we expect?

And the good news here is that Biogen still has plenty of room to run.

Its continued rise will stem from playing a critical role in two massive trends affecting the entire biotech industry – and why biotech has been so hot in the past few years.

First, you have the graying of the baby boomers. That’s 76 million people who were born between 1946 and 1964.

This is the nation’s largest patient group and they are just now ramping up their healthcare needs in a trend that will run for at least the next two decades.

A new report from healthcare research firm IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics shows recent U.S. spending on prescription drugs saw its largest increase since 2001. Here’s how Bloomberg sized up the study:

“Much of the increase came from treatments for hepatitis C, cancer, diabetes and multiple sclerosis after U.S. regulators approved more new drugs than any year since 2001. In total, spending on prescription drugs rose 13.1 percent in 2014, according to the report.”

No wonder Bigoen has such fat margins. Operating margins come in at 41%, and the company has a return on stockholder’s equity of 30%.

The second trend that is helping Biogen is the fact that the Affordable Care Act has put millions of new Americans into the system.

And Obamacare will rely on drugs as the first line of defense in preventing and treating complex diseases to help stem the tide of rising costs for extensive medical care and surgery.

You can see the results of these two overlapping trends in Biogen’s bottom line.

Fourth-quarter revenue was up 34% year over year, with adjusted earnings per share 74% higher than the year-ago quarter.

The company is looking for 14% to 16% growth in 2015 with its current stable of drugs. It also has a deep pipeline of clinical trials that should continue to help it ramp up sales for years to come.

Biogen reports first-quarter results [today], and I’m expecting strong sales and earnings growth. So the fundamentals still look great at this point.

And the technicals look good as well. The stock hasn’t traded below its 50-day moving average all year, meaning it has tremendous institutional support.

With earnings [today], one way to play this biotech winner is to buy a portion at market now.

That way, if for some reason the Street isn’t impressed, you could turn today’s volatile markets to your advantage.

You could pick up more shares at a discount and boost your long-term profits on this excellent foundational play.

— Michael Robinson

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Source: Money Morning