Set Yourself Up for a Strong 2027: 2 Pharmaceutical Stocks to Buy in September

CRISPR Therapeutics is expected to begin recognizing meaningful Casgevy revenue in 2027, with analysts forecasting reported revenue to rise from just over $40 million in 2026 to more than $156 million next year. Vertex-facilitated Casgevy revenue reached $76 million in Q2, up 78% year over year from $43 million in Q1, although CRISPR's GAAP recognition is delayed until treatment completion. Viking Therapeutics' unapproved VK2735 weight-loss program could provide 2027 catalysts through late-stage trials of injectable and oral formulations; analysts' $93.11 consensus target implies 175% upside.

Analysis

CRSP’s equity value should be driven less by reported revenue than by the conversion of treated-patient backlog into recognized milestones and royalties. The nearer-term cleaner expression is VRTX: it captures the commercial economics while CRSP’s accounting lag, cash burn, and limited product diversification can delay multiple re-rating. Over 6-18 months, the key constraint is treatment-center throughput—conditioning capacity, transplant staffing, payer authorization, and patient willingness—not demand; any acceleration in completed infusions would be more important than headline sales growth.

VKTX is a high-beta read-through on the obesity market’s unmet need for differentiated dosing, tolerability, and oral convenience, but it is not yet a credible revenue substitute for LLY or NVO. Its valuation will be dictated by late-stage trial design, discontinuation rates, lean-mass outcomes, and manufacturing scalability; efficacy alone is unlikely to sustain upside if tolerability or supply economics disappoint. The consensus target dispersion and promotional framing increase the risk of a "good but not differentiated" clinical update producing a sharp de-rating within days.

The contrarian view is that obesity-market competition may make first-generation GLP-1 leaders more defensible, not less: LLY and NVO have payer contracts, real-world safety datasets, manufacturing scale, and the ability to bundle indications. A successful VKTX program could pressure smaller obesity developers first, while expanding the category and validating demand rather than materially impairing incumbent revenues over the next 12 months.

Key Decisions for Investors

• Prefer long VRTX over CRSP for the next 1-3 months; use CRSP only as a smaller satellite position ahead of evidence that completed-treatment volume is converting to reported economics. Falsifier: VRTX fails to show sequential commercial progress or signals treatment-center/payer friction.
• Establish a 6-12 month VRTX/CRSP relative-value long-short only if CRSP materially outperforms without a corresponding increase in treated completions or revenue guidance; the trade monetizes CRSP’s accounting/operational lag while retaining exposure to Casgevy adoption.
• Keep VKTX on an event-driven watch list rather than chase consensus-target upside. Initiate only after late-stage protocol details clarify dose, discontinuation thresholds, and endpoint timing; risk should be sized for a 30-50% single-event drawdown typical of pre-approval obesity biotech.
• Maintain LLY or NVO as the lower-volatility obesity exposure through 2027, particularly against a speculative VKTX long. Reassess if VKTX demonstrates clinically meaningful differentiation in tolerability or dosing plus a credible manufacturing path, rather than efficacy comparability alone.