Top 5 Stocks For The Future Of Cardiology

A Silent Killer

Among the leading causes of death in developed countries are various forms of heart failure. It can be anything from sudden and unexpected heart attacks to slow the degradation of the heart's ability to pump blood. 1 in 5 deaths in the USA is related to heart diseases, with one person dying every 33 seconds from it. As a result, the market for cardiology devices was $68.4B in 2023 and is expected to grow to $95.8B by 2028. Heart diseases cost more than $240B in the USA each year, including hospitalization costs and lost productivity due to death.

Thankfully, a large selection of innovative treatments, diagnostic tools, and therapies are coming to help reduce cardiovascular risks and keep more hearts healthy.

Top 5 Stocks For The Future Of Cardiology

1. Abbott Laboratories

Most “Big Pharma” firms are focused on a wide selection of diseases and often target sectors like cancer, diabetes, or infectious diseases. Abbott's main specialty is cardiovascular diseases, with more products in this category than all the others combined.

The other large segment of the company is diabetes management, notably through glucose monitoring devices, a condition often associated with cardiovascular issues. This segment has recently grown with the acquisition of Bigfoot Biomedical in September 2023, a manufacturer of smart insulin management systems.

Abbott's business has grown quickly, with 10-18% growth year-to-year depending on the fast-growing segments, reaching $10.1B in sales worldwide.

Source: Abbott Laboratories

Abbott's cardiovascular products cover the entirety of this medical field, including:

• Electrophysiology: mapping the heart's electric activity.
• Heart failure: heart pump and emergency care.
• Cardiac rhythm management: monitors, defibrillators, and pacemakers.
• Structural heart: valve repairs or replacement up to treating holes in the heart.
• Vascular care: stents and other treatment of veins and arteries.

Source: Abbott Laboratories

The company is a key actor in cardiology, and it is unlikely to change. This is in part thanks to continuous innovation, with, for example the AVEIR leadless pacemaker, which can be implanted without an incision (cut). Among non-cardiology medical devices and drugs, the company has implants for reducing Parkinson's Disease symptoms, real-time glucose monitoring.

The company is also active in medical diagnostics, with lab equipment for quick testing of biological samples, as well as a line of nutrition products with the #1 brand of pediatric formula fed in hospitals (U.S) and the ENSURE and PROTALITY protein drinks for adults.

2. Boston Scientific Corporation

Boston Scientific is a very large medical device producer active in cardiology, endoscopy, urology, and neurological assistance.

This includes products like:

• Pacemakers & defibrillators.
• Spinal cord stimulators and stimulation electrodes.
• Laser surgery.
• Arteries stent.

The company uses a mix of self-developed products and acquisitions to grow in these markets. Since 2011, the company has spent $18B on acquisitions, with VC investments into smaller companies feeding its pipeline (35 VC investments currently).

Cardiovascular represents the largest segment with 64% of total revenues, and the other activities regrouped under the MedSurg (Medical Surgery) category.

Source: Boston Scientific

The company has grown revenue at 6-7% CAGR since 2014, with a goal of 8-10% yearly growth until 2026. Earnings per share have also grown 13-15% per year since 2014.

Source: Boston Scientific

In large part, the growth has been due to the overall growth of the markets where Boston Scientific is active, with 45% of its sales in moderate-growth segments (4-7% CAGR) and 35% in high-growth segments (>7% CAGR).

Despite quickly changing technology, the company has consistently managed to stay #1 or #2 in its core markets. A key part has been consistent VC investments in new cardiology technology, with a portfolio including more than 45 companies. In the past, 10 companies in the VC portfolio were acquired by Boston, demonstrating the competitive advantage it brings to the company, with innovative technology that might otherwise have been acquired at a later date by competitors or directly attack Boston Scientific's market share.

So, the company is a good pick for investors looking for a serial acquirer with a great track record and a history of compounding stock prices and rising dividends.

3. Edwards Lifesciences Corporation

Edwards Lifesciences is a purely cardiovascular-focused company. This goes back to the company's origins in 1958 when Miles Lowell Edwards built the first artificial heart. To date, 800,000 patients have been treated with transcatheter therapies from the company.

Today, the company produces aortic valve replacements, heart valves, valve repairs, and heart monitoring.

Edwards' sales have almost tripled since 2013, reaching almost $6B in 2025. The largest segment is the Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TARV), representing 65% of sales and still growing at 5%-7% CAGR.

Source: Edwards Lifesciences

Currently, Edwards controls around 50% of its market, a small but important sub-section of cardiology. The company expects the addressable market for its products to double by 2028, partly driven by the aging of the global population and economic development in previously under-treated markets, especially in Asia.

Edwards is also staying on the top of its field thanks to strong R&D investments, which has increased by 50% its R&D spending since 2018 and reached $1.1B in 2024. It is also investing around $250M every year in additional manufacturing capacity.

Edwards Lifesciences is a very focused company with a complete dedication to making the best possible heart valves.

While in the very long-term, 10 or 20 years in the future, these products might become less popular due to alternatives like direct regeneration or lab-grown biological valves, the company has a long period ahead where its products will be in high demand due to population aging, and dominate their respective market niche.

4. iRhythm Technologies, Inc.

Where general smartwatches are able to monitor blood pressure and other cardiology-adjacent metrics, iRhythm is developing sensors able to detect, predict, and prevent cardiac diseases.

The company has a 25-30% market penetration in the U.S. ambulatory cardiac monitoring market. It serves 1.5 million patients annually and grew its revenues by 30% CAGR.

The monitors are remarkably discreet and comfortable, ensuring a record of 99% patient compliance. Symptoms are monitored through a smartphone app, and AI deep neural net + cloud-based analytics allow for detecting the risk of heart attack or stroke early.

Source: iRhythm Technologies

iRythm had reached 30% market penetration in its core U.S. ambulatory cardiac monitoring market, with 2 million patients.

The company has only started to expand internationally, with early commercialization in the UK (potential market of 500,000 people), as well as Switzerland, Spain, Austria, the Netherlands, Germany, and France (2.1 million people). It is also aiming for commercialization in Japan in 2025. (1.8M people).

Source: iRhythm Technologies

iRhythm also plans to expand into new markets, with its monitors able to expand into the hypertension or sleep apnea markets.  It can also expand its TAM by targeting patients not yet diagnosed but suspected of cardiac arrhythmia.

The company benefits from an FDA cleared AI, expansive data set for future signal development, and world-class clinical oversight to deliver comprehensive, curated clinical reports to support clinicians and physicians.

iRhythm has a large space to keep growing this market through international expansion and deepening its US market penetration. Considering the success it already encountered, it is likely to keep targeting aggressive growth at home and abroad.

This makes it a good stock for growth investors interested in cardiology and wearables, as well as patient enough to tolerate loss-making growth while the company enters new markets, both medical and geographic.

5. Verve Therapeutics, Inc.

Most of the cardiology field focuses on either detecting and analyzing cardiac symptoms or on surgery and drugs that can make weak hearts keep beating.

Verve Therapeutics is instead looking at a radical new approach: gene therapy. It focuses on atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD), a growing problem linked to metabolic diseases and obesity. ASCVD concerns 30 million people in the US + EU.

“Cholesterol drives the development of atherosclerotic plaque, a mixture of cholesterol, cells, and cellular debris in the wall of a blood vessel that results in hardening of the arteries, and can lead to fatal outcomes such as heart attack and stroke.”

Verve uses nanolipid particles to deliver gene editing directly in vivo (in the patient) to liver cells in order to modify how the body handles cholesterol (LDC-L) in the bloodstream. This essentially would replace and improve the existing treatments based on drugs called statins.

Source: Verve Therapeutics

The treatment is a single injection once for a potential lifetime effect, with now data showing at least that 2 years after treatment, time-averaged LDL-C reduction was still of 58% for a first patient who had suffered heart attack before age 30.

The company is still at an early stage, with most of its R&D programs prior to entering the clinical stage. The company is developing most of its therapies in partnership with gene editing company Beam Therapeutics and pharmaceutical companies Eli Lilly and Vertex.

Source: Verve Therapeutics

By promising a better and permanent replacement to statins, Verve is addressing a gigantic market, with statins a $15.4B yearly market, or 15x larger than Verve's current market capitalization.

So, this is a stock for investors willing to take a large risk for a potentially large reward. A deeper understanding of the technology is also recommended, and you can read our article to understand more about gene therapy and “base editing”, or a report about a leader in the sector, CRISPR Therapeutics.