By Stephen Mack, Associate Editor, Money Morning December 24, 2019

Cloud computing is one of the most profitable niches in the tech industry.

It's the primary driver of earnings growth for both Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Microsoft Inc. (NASDAQ: MSFT). Those stocks are up 53% and 81% in the past two years, respectively.

Some pure-play cloud computing stocks have performed even better

First Trust Cloud Computing ETF (NASDAQ: SKYY), which includes a broad range of companies in the cloud computing segment, has grown 106% over the last five years. That's double the gain of the S&P 500 in that time.

And Gartner Group estimated that $111 billion in IT spending shifted to the cloud in 2016. And that figure is expected to be $216 billion by 2020. That's a 95% jump in four years.

In other words, even an average pick in this space is likely to give you strong returns.

But we can do a lot better than average.

The cloud computing stock we're bringing you today doesn't just benefit from tech. It also taps into the $1.2 trillion pharmaceutical industry.

This is an industry that can be enormously profitable. EvaluatePharma expects 10 drugs launched this year will reach billion-dollar annual sales.

But it's also hit-or-miss. Only about one in 10 drugs in development make it to market, according to Biotechnology Innovation Organization.

Getting a drug to market typically takes about 12 years and $1 billion.

When you factor in all the failures, though, the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development found that the cost balloons to $2.5 billion.

No wonder prescription drug costs are through the roof.

That's where our cloud computing stock comes in.

This company specializes in providing Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions to the pharmaceutical and life sciences industries.

The result is increased efficiency and faster development times. In some cases, drug makers have more than doubled their productivity through cloud-based products.

In other words, more drugs are making it to market quicker at a lower cost.

But you don't need to be a patient to benefit from this productivity. If you pick up this cloud computing stock today, Money Morning Defense and Tech Specialist Michael Robinson says you could double your money in three years or less.

And that's a conservative estimate, he stresses.

Join the conversation. Click here to jump to comments

About the Author

Stephen Mack has been writing about economics and finance since 2011. He contributed material for the best-selling books Aftershock and The Aftershock Investor. He lives in Baltimore, Maryland.

Read full bio

See the rest here:

This Cloud Computing Stock Is Transforming the $1.2 Trillion Drug Industry - Money Morning