There are plenty of risks with biotech stocks. That's why it makes sense to invest in biotech companies that have plenty of likely growth but are also already profitable. Sure, you could take a flyer of a company that could go big with a breakthrough drug, but Vir Biotechnology (NASDAQ: VIR) and Vertex Pharmaceutical (NASDAQ: VRTX) already have breakthrough therapies, healthy pipelines, and enough incoming cash to finance the research and development of those pipelines, along with the marketing expertise to make future and current drugs profitable.

Both companies have also invested in gene-editing therapies, using the profits from other lead drugs to fund that research.

Vertex Pharmaceutical stock is up more than 30% this year, while the S&P 500 is down more than 17% this year and the Invesco Dynamic Biotech & Genome ETF is down more than 15%.

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Source Fool.com