FORTUNE DECEMBER 2020 /JANUARY 2021 121MEDICAL ARTISTRY
An Intuitive Surgical
da Vinci robotic
system.M3
36 JAPAN (T: 2413, $79)The S ony-backed,
online health care
firm—whose name
stands for “Medicine,
Media, and Metamor-
phosis”—has dozens
of subsidiaries that
serve both pharma
companies and
5.8 million physicians,
with services ranging
from marketing solu-
tions to A.I.-based di-
agnostics. Over the
past three years, M3
has averaged a 6 0 %
shareholder return.J iangsu Hengrui is the largest
pharmaceutical company in China and a
leader in cancer treatment drugs and
anesthetics for surgery. Its profit rose 14%
in the first nine months of 2 020 ,
alongside a 15% jump in revenue. The
company’s status as a domestic pioneer
in novel drug development—its recent
drug successes include immunotherapy
medications and long-lasting insulin
treatments—means it’s been hurt less
than some of its peers by the Chinese
government’s efforts to drive down
generic drug prices. Over the past five
years, Jiangsu’s stock is up some 35 0 %.Illumina
47 U.S. (ILMN, $3 0 1)Th is maker of ge-
netic sequencing
equipment had a year
of lows—and highs—
thanks to COVID.
Both revenue and net
income were down in
Q3 from the same
period a year ago, yet
the company’s domi-
nant position in the
fast-growing genetic
sequencing market
gives investors plenty
of reason to be bull-
ish. Illumina’s rapid
COVID test received
emergency use au-
thorization in July,
and the company be-
lieves sequencing
will become an im-
portant part of track-
ing the virus, point-
ing to Australia’s first
national COVID-19
tracking system—
which aims to se-
quence the virus ge-
nomes of all positive
tests across the
country. On the third-
quarter earnings call,
Illumina CEO Francis
deSouza said the
company is “making
progress incorporat-
ing genomics into
the standard of care
in noninvasive pre-
natal testing, oncol-
ogy therapy selection,
and genetic disease
diagnosis.” In Sep-
tember, Illumina’s
stock dipped after it
said it would spend
$8 billion to reac-
quire a former spinoff,
cancer blood test–
maker Grail. DeSouza
said he believes the
unit will “catalyze a
new era of early can-
cer detection, trans-
forming cancer
survivability and
opening up the larg-
est clinical applica-
tion of genomics
we’ve seen.”Intuitive
Surgical
44 U.S. (ISRG, $731)As the maker of
the pioneering
da Vinci surgical
systems, which
use robotics to
make surgery
minimally invasive,
Intuitive is on the
cutting edge of
health care. Now
the question
is whether the
Sunnyvale, Calif.,
company can
fend off a growing
roster of rivals. The
pandemic has tem-
porarily slowed
demand for the
elective surgeries
for which da Vinci
systems are used.
But the company is
looking to make its
$2 million surgical
robots more af-
fordable in order to
extend their reach
further in hospitals
nationwide. In-
tuitive’s stock has
quadrupled over
the past five years.Jiangsu Hengrui
Medicine
42 CHINA (SS: 6 002 76, $13)COURTESY OF INTUITIVE SURGICAL