Editor's note: Biotechnology companies are pouring billions of dollars into new production plants. And according to Dave Lashmet, editor of Stansberry Venture Technology, the race to scale up production is on. In this piece, adapted from a March 2024 issue of the Stansberry Digest, Dave explains how these companies are setting themselves up for massive profits...

The world drinks a lot of Budweiser...

Every year, Anheuser-Busch InBev – the parent company of Budweiser and brands like Michelob and Stella Artois – sells 15 billion gallons of beer. That's the equivalent of filling 80 Olympic-sized swimming pools every day.

To do this, the company needs water purification tanks, massive brewing vats, and quality-control laboratories. AB InBev spends around $5 billion per year on these and other capital expenditures.

But I'm not telling you this story just to point out how much beer AB InBev makes and what it costs. The company's "rivers of beer" are just a good comparison measure... to give you a sense of scale.

That's because, similar to AB InBev, biotechnology companies are creating their own manufacturing palaces...

And yeast is important to them – just like it is to beer. You see, yeast helps make a protein – a building block of life – that will support some other protein already in the body.

And making a protein involves the same brewing principles – plus the same purification and bottling – that beer does.

That's why biotech companies also need to invest heavily in production plants. And as they invest billions to scale up production, the race to meet skyrocketing demand for protein-based drugs presents a unique opportunity right now.

Let's get into the details...

In May 2020, Biogen (BIIB) completed a big new biotech plant in Switzerland for $1.4 billion...

The biotech leader built this plant for its experimental Alzheimer's drug, aducanumab. But despite promising early trials, that drug was a disaster.

Ultimately, Biogen left its fancy new factory idle. Fortunately, its Japanese partner has a blockbuster protein drug hitting the U.S. market. So Biogen Switzerland makes its partner's drug and gets half the revenue – plus all the manufacturing costs. The Swiss plant got a second chance.

So, as you can see, these big expenses are risky. But they're worth the risk... when they pay off.

That's important because of the massive spending we're seeing from biotech today – on weight-loss drugs...

As we've covered before, two popular weight-loss drugs are in short supply. Demand is hot. At a minimum, 100 million American adults are clinically obese... plus another 100 million globally.

If you add folks who are considered overweight though not obese, you get another 50 million Americans... and 350 million folks in Europe.

And it's not just the U.S. and Europe... Japan, Canada, and Australia are seeing obesity rates continuing to rise, inexorably, too.

But I've seen the end of the obesity epidemic...

Since 2019, I've tracked both headline-making weight-loss drugs. Both of them work – and not just to change how much you exercise or to merely make your stomach feel full.

Instead, they trigger your "winter switch" – your glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor. When this happens, you burn fat to stay warm and eat less, as if you're trying to survive until spring. You can see the brain chemistry at play in your resting heart rate, which jumps by five beats per minute.

Patients on these drugs also report a lack of appetite. That's not an adverse event – that's the drugs working. The net effect is a steady "winter" of fasting and fat burning: Folks lose 15%, 20%, or 25% of their weight.

A lower weight relieves pressure on your heart, lungs, legs, kidneys, and liver, and it cuts blood pressure in your brain. These drugs can help prevent dozens of diseases, starting on Day 1.

Yet they are both protein drugs – so supply is going to be a problem. Because you need giant beer vats, these drugs need time and space to grow.

And this scenario matters to investors... because, in this case, supply directly translates into profits. The demand is there.

One company making these drugs committed to a $17 billion building spree, mostly in the U.S. – rivaling AB InBev in capital expenditure.

The second company making weight-loss drugs committed $6 billion to expand manufacturing in Europe. Then, in early 2024, it spent another $11 billion to buy the protein-brewing vats from its one key supplier. The total was more than 10 times greater than Biogen's investment in its protein-drug factory in Switzerland.

Altogether, these two weight-loss companies are spending amounts that we've never before seen invested into the production of these kinds of protein drugs.

This deal also brings production in-house, so workers get a quality stock – and weight-loss drugs for their families. That sounds simple, but given high production costs and the current scarcity, this is a real perk for folks.

These companies have already seen their share prices soar. But these stocks have not peaked...

Earnings ultimately drive their share prices. And if they manufacture more drugs, they can sell more and make more – no paid marketing needed. (Sorry, Budweiser Clydesdales.)

As you can see, building giant metal vats for living yeast or other living cells is not cheap – and that means it's a big gamble. But if you do have a winning drug and own the factory, you control your own destiny... to limitless profits.

Good investing,

Dave Lashmet

Editor's note: The breakthroughs we're seeing in the drug industry are reshaping society. But still, most investors are missing this story. That's why we're sharing one of the highest-conviction ideas in Stansberry Research history – an opportunity that could deliver 1,000%-plus returns. But a key deadline is coming up fast. And once it passes, this opportunity could disappear for good... Get the full details before it's too late.