ASND is a long-term buy: its gradual-release drug platform offers major long-term growth and potential partnerships, including with Novo Nordisk, while strong financial management, $600 million cash, high margins and high returns on capital make it a wonderful company.
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The first company is Ascendis Pharmaceuticals, and its trading symbol is ASND. It seems no one has heard of her. The company is headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark. So, the first thing I would say is that it's great to have some investments outside of the United States .
The second thing is that it is a biotechnology company that targets rare hormone disorders.
You might think, " Biotechnology, I don't feel comfortable investing in that sector." "This is just a lottery ticket." "Who knows?" It became clear that the more I studied the leadership of these companies, and saw what they had achieved through the FDA approval process , and followed how well they managed their finances, the more I realized how difficult it was .
As a biotechnology company, you can spend long periods in the "desert" (i.e., a period of stagnation). So, if you have very smart financial managers, they can eventually turn pennies into dollars, which is what we like to find in our long- term investments.
Ascendis has expertise in its financial management and development team, and it has a very important asset at the heart of its business, which is its core platform that allows for the gradual release of drugs.
This means you can reduce the frequency of doses for the solutions they developed in their drug discovery process , and they now have the potential to form partnerships with companies like Novo Nordisk.
The founder of Ascends Pharmaceuticals came from Novo Nordisk, so who knows, there may be opportunities for less frequent doses of gradual-release GLP through partnerships with Ascends.
But this is a company that has $600 million in cash on its balance sheet , and enjoys high profit margins and high rates of return on capital. What a wonderful company. And what a wonderful number of gifts they have given to the market; this platform for the gradual release of drugs represents a great long-term growth opportunity.