2 Healthcare Stocks That Tumbled in 2024…but Could See an Impressive Comeback in 2025
Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX -0.77%) and AstraZeneca (AZN -1.17%), two of the world’s leading drugmakers, missed last year’s strong market rally. Both finished 2024 slightly in the red. They’re already doing better in 2025, though. And there are good reasons to think both could maintain a strong performance throughout the year. Here’s why.
VRTX Chart
VRTX data by YCharts.
- Vertex Pharmaceuticals
Vertex Pharmaceuticals performed well for much of 2024. The stock slid during the year’s final months, culminating in a massive one-day drop prompted by a clinical setback.
In a phase 2 study, the company’s medication suzetrigine barely performed better than a placebo in treating painful lumbosacral radiculopathy (LSR), a condition that causes pain in patients’ lower backs, hips, and legs. While Vertex will advance the medicine to phase 3 studies in this indication, the market isn’t convinced it will be successful.
However, Vertex remains an attractive stock. Since that setback, the biotech has earned approval for Alyftrek, a next-generation medicine in its core area of expertise, cystic fibrosis (CF).
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NASDAQ: VRTX
Vertex Pharmaceuticals
Today’s Change
(-0.77%) -$3.58
Current Price
$459.00
YTD
1w
1m
3m
6m
1y
5y
Price
VS S&P
VRTX
S&P
Key Data Points
Market Cap
$118B
Day’s Range
$457.36 – $469.55
52wk Range
$377.85 – $519.88
Volume
995,204
Avg Vol
1,651,622
Gross Margin
86.07%
Dividend Yield
N/A
Furthermore, suzetrigine earned its first indication in treating moderate to severe acute pain — where it is marketed as Journavx — becoming the first of a new class of oral non-opioid pain inhibitors on the market.
These regulatory wins (especially the second) are lifting Vertex’s stock, a rally that could continue for much of the year. Alyftrek should start making some noise, as will Journavx. Vertex’s Casgevy, a gene-editing treatment for two rare blood-related diseases that has been on the market for a little over a year, could also contribute to the company’s financial results.
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Vertex should see more pipeline progress, too. The company has a duo of novel medicines in phase 3 studies and several more in earlier stages of development. So, after a subpar 2024, Vertex Pharmaceuticals could perform much better in 2025.
What’s more important, though, are the company’s long-term prospects. And on that front, investors have little to worry about today. Vertex’s strategy of developing medicines in areas with large unmet needs has proven to work. The company’s dominance in CF in the past decade — which led to excellent financial results and stock-market performances — proves as much:
VRTX Revenue (Annual) Chart
VRTX Revenue (Annual) data by YCharts.
Vertex’s approvals in areas beyond CF and its exciting pipeline make it a great biotech stock to buy.
- AstraZeneca
AstraZeneca’s financial results were strong for most of 2024, as was its stock performance. However, the company faced legal issues in the last few months of the year. Some of its executives in China, including its former president in the country, Leon Wang, have been the subject of investigation by the authorities there. That’s on top of an insurance fraud investigation and allegations of smuggling of unapproved drugs, also in China.
These issues have weighed on AstraZeneca’s stock, and certainly add some degree of uncertainty to the company’s prospects. However, AstraZeneca’s legal problems stem from its operations in China, which strongly suggests wrongdoing by specific people affiliated with the company there. These issues will somewhat affect AstraZeneca’s performance in the country, and the company will have to pay back unpaid importation taxes related to the smuggling of unapproved drugs in China.