Cancer Treatment
Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the U.S. according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It’s awful for the hundreds of thousands of patients and their families impacted by it.
But, there is hope.
A new 2020 American Cancer Society report shows the largest single-year drop, 2.2%, in the rate of people dying from cancer ever recorded in 2017, the most recent year tracked.
Even more promising, the report indicates that the rate of people dying from cancer has dropped every year for 26 straight years.
How did we get here? More effective early detection, treatment advances, and lifestyle changes, for starters. But there is a lot more innovation that’s happening in modern cancer care that’s improving the odds for cancer patients everywhere. These new technologies include:
Artificial Intelligence for Cancer Care
The modern healthcare system is today based on electronic health data. Now, thanks to artificial intelligence (AI) technology, we are finally able to more efficiently analyze and categorize that data, allowing researchers to identify disease and treatment trends that are leading to a better understanding of the elements that affect cancer growth or decline. Moreover, researchers and clinicians alike are now able to more quickly access and compare information about patients with similar cancers.
The startup company, Paige (Pathology AI Guidance Engine), for example, applies AI-based methods to better map the pathology of cancer. Paige raised $45 million in funding in late 2019.
The Cancer Genomics Cloud (CGC), which houses a number of cancer data sets, including the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), makes a huge amount of data available to researchers quickly and securely.
These technological efforts are leading both to increasingly personalized cancer care and new treatment options in the fight for a cure.
Genomics Testing for Better Cancer Treatment
Liquid biopsies investigate “any type of specimen other than tissue — including blood, urine, and cerebral spinal fluid — that can be interrogated regarding the functionality of a cancer tumor.” An important tool in early detection, liquid biopsies can detect cancer before it becomes visible or shows symptoms. And, in the case of blood or urine specimens, the biopsies are non-invasive.
Guardant Health, a provider of liquid biopsies, saw its stock grow 78% in 2019. And that’s just the beginning. The market for liquid biopsies is projected to reach $6.5 billion by 2026, but could grow to as much as a $100 billion market by some estimates.
Immunotherapy and Cancer
Immunotherapy harnesses the power of the immune system to help patients fight a wide range of diseases, including cancer. In the spring of 2018, there were 753 cell-based therapies in development according to the Cancer Research Institute.
And, some are working magic for patients. Keytruda, approved to treat a range of cancers, brought in approximately $11.1 billion in sales for the drug giant, Merck.
Improving Patient Access
Beyond housing mass data for researchers and clinicians, the internet is giving cancer patients themselves a place to connect with vetted expert information and with other patients.
SurvivorNet is a community of cancer patients and survivors, as well as a forum for expert information. Its goal is to increase access to information about treatment options. SurvivorNet recently raised $10M in a Series B funding round.
Why Invest in Cancer Treatment?
When it comes to cancer, traditional treatments like chemotherapy and radiation are still commonly used and are generally effective. But, they are also aggressive and indiscriminate, and often come with debilitating side effects (although medical cannabis has been shown to help ease these symptoms).
As medicine becomes more personal, so too are cancer treatments, with doctors and researchers moving towards increasingly patient-centric therapies.
Why now? Electronic health records, genetic testing, big data analytics, and supercomputing are the tools of precision care, and now, doctors and scientists have them. The results are both better targeted therapies available to patients sooner after diagnosis and cancer treatment options that are both in development and widely available multiplying fast.
This leaves investors with lots of options. Not only are there new therapies and drugs on the market, there are new testing technologies, AI companies, and online platforms that have the potential to be the next big thing.
How to Invest in the Future of Cancer Care
Cancer is something that we all want to beat. And, these days, our chances of actually accomplishing that goal are better than ever.
As new technologies become commercialized, millions will be diagnosed earlier and successfully connected with their cures. It won’t happen overnight, though. It will happen one breakthrough at a time.
Picking those winners ahead of time is difficult, however, and typically calls for advanced medical research knowledge and understanding that most investors simply don’t have. But, a search on Magnifi suggests that there are a number of other ways to profit from cancer care innovation as a whole via mutual funds and ETFs.
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The information and data are as of the February 6, 2020 (publish date) unless otherwise noted and subject to change. This blog is sponsored by Magnifi.
Virtual Reality
Our addiction to screens isn’t anticipated to change anytime soon, but with the growth of virtual reality, how we relate to our screens is sure to.
The proof? Headset sales are booming. Over the holiday season, Facebook’s popular Oculus Quest virtual reality headset sold out and is now on a two-month back-order.
In other words, when it comes to virtual and augmented reality, the technology is ready and so are the users.
So, what exactly is virtual reality?
Virtual reality is a type of technology that “shuts out the physical world,” creating a completely immersive experience in digitally created “real world” or imagined environments.
This is slightly different from augmented reality, which adds digital elements to our real-life view. Think of Pokémon Go, for example, which digitally plants Pokémon characters around real-life cities and towns for players to physically go and find. That’s augmented reality.
What Can Virtual Reality Do?
Both virtual reality and augmented reality are changing the ways that almost all industries deliver goods and services to consumers.
First, and maybe first to come to mind for most people, is virtual reality’s place in the gaming world. The video gaming industry is anticipated to grow to as large as a $300 billion industry by 2025. Virtual reality will no doubt help to stimulate that growth, transforming the gaming world by dramatically changing the dynamics of how players relate to their games.
After all, games are no longer built like the old Nintendo or Atari platforms. New games allow players to be real participants in the action, and virtual reality is just the next step in this direction.
For instance, the much anticipated virtual reality game, Half Life: Alyx, is set to release a sequel more than a decade after its first iteration. Other highly anticipated virtual reality video game releases include The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners, The Walking Dead Onslaught, and Iron Man. These games have a ready market and mountains of consumers that have or have yet to order their headsets.
Virtual reality and gaming, yes. But what about virtual reality and spas? Yes, it’s a thing.
The Four Seasons Resort in Oahu is now offering the world’s first multisensory virtual reality and wellness experience in what it calls the Vessel. And, it’s not alone. Spas across the U.S. now offer similar experiences in a device known as the Somodome, a self-contained meditation pod.
Virtual reality is challenging companies to reimagine how they engage consumers of all kinds. This includes retail, even though online shopping seems to be doing just fine without it. Consider virtual reality shopping. Soon you may be sipping coffee and exploring the various kitchen options from the comfort of your couch thanks to Ikea’s Virtual Reality Showroom.
Beyond consumer goods and services, virtual reality has huge potential to improve training for higher education and corporate entities alike. Walmart is on board, training employees with virtual reality programs that offer new hires the opportunity to experience specific customer situations. The military is also using virtual reality for training purposes, and even the Denver Broncos football team is using virtual reality as a tool for training new and injured players (quarterbacks specifically).
The technology also has the potential to be used for highly sophisticated simulations in the healthcare field. Emmanuel Hospice, a non-profit hospice company, offers patients the ability to leave their rooms with virtual reality-based therapy. Using the technology, one patient went on a virtual trip to Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park, and another to Ireland.
The possibilities are endless and virtual reality technology is everywhere.
Why Invest in Virtual Reality
With all of these different applications, it should come as no surprise that the VR industry is set to grow rapidly. The global virtual reality market is anticipated to reach $120.5 billion by 2026, a dramatic increase from $7.3 billion in 2018.
And, the market is ripe for investment. As the technology advances, virtual reality is expected to play an increasing role in training and education, entertainment, retail, healthcare, and more.
Not only is the technology required for virtual reality improving, but the costs associated with it are decreasing. Quality virtual reality experiences require both a headset and a powerful graphics card. These two elements have big-name companies like Sony, Samsung, and Facebook, as well as lesser-known companies, competing for market share in each. As virtual reality becomes increasingly mainstream, these companies are poised to benefit.
Beyond these two primary technology elements, virtual reality is also primed to create new investment opportunities in the industries that adopt it. Whether it’s the next big game, the next big hospital training platform, or something we have yet to imagine, industry-specific virtual reality solutions are sure to create a buzz and further stimulate consumer adoption.
When it comes to virtual reality, opportunity abounds. You can invest in the technology itself, or the products, services, and solutions that it delivers.
How to Invest in Virtual Reality
Of course, virtual and augmented reality are high-growth, high-volatility sectors, meaning that they can make for risky investments when bought directly. Rather, a search on Magnifi suggests that there are a number of other ways to profit from virtual reality innovation via mutual funds and ETFs that cover this fast-growing sector.
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The information and data are as of the January 22, 2020 (publish date) unless otherwise noted and subject to change. This blog is sponsored by Magnifi.
Cannabis Investing
On New Year’s Day 2014, history was made in Colorado. Hundreds of people lined up in the cold outside dozens of shops across the state, each eagerly waiting to be among the first to legally purchase cannabis for recreational use in the United States.
Voters in Colorado and Washington State approved the sale and use of recreational cannabis during the November 2012 election, and the first legal cannabis sales in Colorado in January 2014 represented the opening of a new, legal market for a product that had historically been exchanged only on the black market.
The creation and subsequent growth of this legal market have been driven by the public’s rapidly evolving views on cannabis. In the U.S., public opinion on the sale and consumption of cannabis have changed dramatically over the past decade. According to the Pew Research Center, only 32% of Americans oppose legalizing cannabis in 2019, while 52% of Americans opposed legalization in 2010. This dramatic shift occurred as the American public became more aware of cannabis’s medical uses, and 91% of Americans now support the legalization of medicinal cannabis.
As of November 2019, medicinal cannabis is legal in 33 states and Washington D.C., and recreational cannabis is legal in 11 states and Washington D.C. Cannabis remains illegal under U.S. federal law, a fact that makes the nascent cannabis industry a unique experiment in U.S. law and capitalism.
As more states legalize cannabis and as more businesses enter the market, the contradictions between state and federal law grow more profound. A cannabis producer, for instance, cannot legally ship their product to a neighboring state, even if it is legal in that state, because of federal interstate commerce law.
Cannabis producers are also largely excluded from utilizing formal banking services, which sets up a dilemma as described thus by the American Bankers Association: “The rift between federal and state law has left banks trapped between their mission to serve the financial needs of their local communities and the threat of federal enforcement action.”
There are signs, however, that the distance between state and federal law on cannabis’ legal status may be shrinking. Several bills are currently being debated in the U.S. House of Representatives that aim to combat the federal vs. state contradictions surrounding cannabis law, and there is growing bipartisanship (a word rarely used to describe the state of Washington these days) on expanding access to medicinal cannabis for veterans. There is still a ways to go before cannabis is fully legalized, but at this point, most people seem to agree it is a question of when instead of if.
For those interested in the investment potential of this rapidly-growing sector, there are a few important points to understand.
What Is Cannabis?
The word “cannabis” comes from the plant genus Cannabis in the family Cannabaceae, and it generally refers to the medicinal substance produced from plants in the Cannabis genus containing psychoactive chemicals. When ingested or smoked, cannabis can produce an altered mental and physical state, often referred to as feeling “high.”
Though cultivated as a medicinal treatment for several thousand years, cannabis is now being recognized by modern medical professionals for its promise in treating chronic pain, nausea, and PTSD, among many other ailments. It is also commonly used to help cancer patients manage their symptoms.
It is important to note that not all cannabis products contain the psychoactive chemicals that produce a high. CBD (which stands for cannabidiol) is one such product, and it has shown tremendous promise in treating a number of ailments – perhaps most significantly, childhood seizure disorders. Furthermore, recent research has found that in states that legalized medicinal cannabis, the number and rate of opioid prescriptions in the state decreased substantially.
The Market Opportunity in Cannabis
According to projections from The Nielsen Company, cannabis sales in the U.S. are forecast to increase from $8 billion in 2018 to $41 billion by 2025. While these projections are remarkable in their own right, they focus only on projected sales of legal cannabis from licensed sellers.
Despite the wave of legalization sweeping the U.S., there is still a thriving black market for cannabis. In the case of California, the value of cannabis sold on the black market in 2019 is projected to be worth about $8.7 billion, while the state’s legal cannabis sales are expected to reach $3.1 billion.
As more states move to legalize cannabis, and as public opinion continues to move in favor of broader access for medicinal purposes, there is likely to be increasing pressure on state and federal lawmakers to address the economic realities that drive black market cannabis sales. For instance, giving producers the freedom to move their products as dictated by supply and demand would decrease pressure to offload products on the black market, as well as increase overall efficiency, lowering prices and making products more competitive with those on the black market. Several states are already setting the legal groundwork for interstate cannabis imports and exports.
As with any economic experiment, the rise of the legal cannabis industry is going to adjust and correct itself as it matures. In that space, however, there are tremendous opportunities for the savvy investor.
Consider, for a moment, that the legal cannabis industry does not need to invent a new product or market that product to a new group of customers in order to realize enormous growth. With the right economic incentives and regulatory framework, the cannabis industry can harness the existing economic activity of the black market and legally supply customers with a product that is already quite popular and increasingly seen as an effective treatment for various ailments.
It is also worth noting that four out of the five top Democratic candidates for U.S. president in 2020 support full legalization of cannabis.
How to Invest in Cannabis
Despite the legality questions surrounding cannabis as of 2019, there is still a growing market of public companies in the cannabis space that are becoming popular with investors. However, as new companies (in an effectively new industry), investing directly in these companies can be quite risky. Rather, there are a number of funds and ETFs that give investors access to this asset class with more diversification. A search on Magnifi suggests that there are a number of other ways to profit from the growing cannabis industry as a whole.
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Magnifi is changing the way we shop for investments, with the world’s first semantic search engine for finance that helps users discover, compare and buy investment products such as ETFs, mutual funds and stocks. Open a Magnifi investment account today.
The information and data are as of the December 4, 2019 (publish date) unless otherwise noted and subject to change. This blog is sponsored by Magnifi.
General Electric (GE)
It’s been a long and winding road for General Electric (GE), one of the first 12 companies to be included as part of the Dow Jones Industrial Average when the list was first launched in 1896. Founded by none other than Thomas Edison, who created the Edison Lamp Company in the late 1880s to market his newest innovation, the electric lightbulb, GE as a company was formed in 1889 by Edison’s financial backers, including J.P. Morgan and the Verderbilt family, as a way to support all of the various applications for electricity that were emerging at the time. In the early days, those applications included everything from railroads, to radio, to power generation and more.
Today GE is one of the largest conglomerates in the world, with interests in aviation, healthcare, renewable energy, additive manufacturing, financial services and, of course, electric lighting.
For 2018, GE’s worldwide revenue was more than $121 billion, placing it 18th on the Fortune 500 list of the largest U.S. companies by revenue. It employs more than 230,000 people across 130 countries.
Rationale
For more than a century, the most direct way to gain exposure to General Electric has been to buy its listed shares. But lately there have been a number of good reasons for investors to reconsider that approach. For one thing, GE was delisted from the Dow Jones Industrial Average in 2018 after its enterprise value was nearly cut in half in 2017 following years of disappointing financial results. Between 2016 and 2018, the company lost 74% of its market cap, due in large part to bad moves in its power generation business.
However, investors interested in gaining exposure to the sectors that General Electric competes, rather than buying GE shares themselves should consider buying funds that provide exposure to General Electric and other conglomerates. After all, the return drivers that will benefit GE might also benefit other similar companies in aviation, manufacturing, consumer staples and more. As investment management is gradually moving to the construction of portfolios using ETFs and mutual funds in addition to single stocks, investors would do well to consider gain exposure to firms like General Electric through these types of funds.
Investing in GE
A search on Magnifi suggests that investors can gain access to GE via a number of different funds and ETFs, including those shown below.
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This blog is sponsored by Magnifi. The information and data are as of the publish date unless otherwise noted and subject to change. This material is provided for informational purposes only and should not be construed as individualized investment advice or an offer or solicitation to buy or sell securities tailored to your needs. This information covers investment and market activity, industry or sector trends, or other broad-based economic or market conditions and should not be construed as investment research or advice. Investors are urged to consult with their financial advisors before buying or selling any securities. Although certain information has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, we do not guarantee its accuracy, completeness or fairness. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. This content may not be reproduced or distributed to any person in whole or in part without the prior written consent of Magnifi. [As a technology company, Magnifi provides access to tools and will be compensated for providing such access. Magnifi does not provide broker-dealer, custodian, investment advice or related investment services.]