This small company has a strong pipeline of promising drugs in addition to successful drugs already being sold, which makes it today’s Stock of the Week.

Drug Developer

Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (IONS) stands out among small drug-development firms. It already is selling two medicines, has a strong pipeline of others in development and has partnership agreements with large companies that provide up-front payments for drugs in development. This allows Ionis to continue spending heavily on research despite reporting the losses that are typical for such companies. Ionis should be sustainably profitable within three years.

Revenue from its drugs and collaborations was $284 million last year and should reach $313 million in 2017. Ionis—which changed its name from Isis Pharmaceuticals last December—sells a drug for an inherited condition causing very high cholesterol and another for ulcerative colitis. Ionis’s partner, Biogen, is filing for FDA approval of a medicine for spinal muscular atrophy, the leading genetic cause of infant deaths. In Phase III trials—the last before applying for FDA approval—are medicines for cancer, severe bacterial infection and several inherited conditions.

Ionis’s drugs treat rare, fatal diseases…do not compete with medicines being developed by large firms…and can be priced in line with their unique value to patients.

Earnings per share: 2017 est./–$1.07…2016 est./–$1.03…2015/–$0.74.

This Week’s Expert

travers_scott_a-4cCharles L. Travers is co-manager of the $230 million Motley Fool Great America Fund (TMFGX), Alexandria, Virginia. FoolFunds.com

From the Editor’s Desk

Some of the best stock bargains are found in companies that have run into big problems. Discover three of these in the Shrewd Investor column headlined Turnaround Stocks from the latest issue of Bottom Line Personal.

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—Harry Berkowitz, editor