This is the time when many investment analysts make all sorts of predictions for the year ahead.
They forecast the stock market, the dollar, interest rates, oil prices, gold… anything and everything. Most of these opinions are worth about what you pay to hear them.
[ad#Google Adsense 336×280-IA]But here’s a prediction that can make you serious money in 2016.
The year’s hottest sector will be one that most investors don’t even know about: synthetic biology.
You may not have heard the term before. But I can promise you will hear a lot more about it in the year ahead.
Synthetic biology is a new interdisciplinary branch of science, one that combines biology, biophysics, genetics and engineering.
Companies in the sector own armies of biological robots, as well as proprietary genetic and genomic technologies that allow them to engineer living things in new and predictable ways.
Synthetic biology is a discipline that aims to make biology as easy and predictable as engineering. It enables the redesign of existing biological systems and also the creation of new biological components that do not already exist in the natural world.
One focus is healthcare applications. While the product development cycle is long here, a new blockbuster drug or therapy can reel in billions in annual sales for a decade or more.
However, the most promising companies are making research and development deals with various partners – both large and small – to create biotech products not only in healthcare but in energy, food, environmental services and even consumer goods.
These partnerships reduce the risk associated with the development and commercialization of new products.
Plus, they allow these firms to stay focused on developing a robust pipeline full of new opportunities rather than spending time and money on more mundane business activities like finding distributors and sales representatives.
Firms in the sector are actively pursuing hundreds of commercial ideas. Broad diversification means that one or two product failures will not derail a company’s mission, since there will still be plenty of other opportunities in development.
Bear in mind, all living things are controlled by the same simple set of chemicals that comprise DNA. By developing tools to engineer living things, these firms can create living organisms with more precision than ever before. They are fabricating everything from quicker-breeding cattle to superior industrial microorganisms to better cancer drugs.
This is not just about gee-whiz science. It’s also about making serious money.
It’s often been said that one good speculation is worth a lifetime of prudent investing.
Early investors in Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), Amgen (Nasdaq: AMGN), Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL), Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) and Tesla (Nasdaq: TSLA) – to name just a few – watched their holdings increase fiftyfold or more while the market simply plugged along.
With synthetic biology, you have that kind of opportunity again.
The companies in this sector are engineering living cells, turning them into microscopic factories that create new industrial products, safer and cheaper foods, and novel therapies to treat deadly diseases.
Good investing,
Alex
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Source: Investment U