In this week's Stansberry Investor Hour, Dan and John Engel welcome Dave Lashmet to the show. Dave is the editor of Stansberry Venture Technology, an advisory that takes a "venture capitalist" look at the market. Dave scours the market looking for little-known small-cap companies that are potentially producing the next wonder drug or technology.

Dave kicks things off by discussing the first of three biopharmaceutical companies he's sharing that have monopolies in weight-loss drugs. He starts by showing how drugs gain their monopolies via patents, giving them "economic exclusivity." While companies might be targeting the same patients, the patents influence how they're being treated. The first company gains an edge by not only targeting folks suffering from obesity, but also by treating those with Type 2 diabetes. Dave also explains the contrast in mentality between the U.S. and other countries regarding obesity being preventable. And he provides info showing how obesity is a "slippery slope" and shares that a study found that participants who got off the drug gained back the weight they lost before...

We pretend that obesity is entirely a matter of will and not a slippery slope. As you gain weight, you exercise less. As you exercise less, you gain weight. As you gain weight, you exercise less... These drugs can short-circuit that, but only if you stay on them. If you get off them, you're in trouble... Without these drugs, the control study basically gained back 25 pounds in six months.

Next, Dave sums up how the first company has cleared all of the risks and expenses from clinical trials, while a close competitor still has to get past its trials due to unknown side effects. When asked about why folks would stay on a weight-loss pill for life, Dave points to how our culture has drastically changed over the years, from actively working on farms to passively working in cubicles. These drugs help balance out the resulting shift. Dave then transitions into the next company that has a drug that focuses on fatty liver disease. He explains how this distinction helps the company gain its monopoly due to how irreplaceable livers are. And similar to the first company, this drug will have lifelong consumers. And the good news for investors is that its only competitor causes weight gain...

By the end of 2026, it'll be a $2 billion drug because it's safe and it works. And it's a once-a-day pill for fatty liver disease. And the alternative is that your liver fails and you die. So it's a highly promising compound. There's one pill in development that can try and compete with it. The other pill, which is still in development, triggers weight gain. Do you know what people with fatty liver disease do not need?

Finally, Dave presents the final company that tackles weight loss by focusing on genetics. Unlike the first two companies, this one treats patients with an injectable drug rather than a pill. However, it zeroes in on our natural "hunger switch," suppressing the users' appetites. Right now, the company is only waiting to get past trials, which puts it at a disadvantage compared with the other two. But Dave still believes that because of how it works, it's still set to stand beside the two pills...

So what kind of maintenance therapy can you give people so that they actually improve? A once-a-day pill that saves their liver, which had been damaged because of obesity, and then recovers, and maybe a different approach to hunger – that's it. These three. Everything we've seen from GLP-1s. That's the opening act. This is the real deal.

Click on the image below to watch the video interview with Dave right now. For the audio version, click "Listen" above.

(Additional past episodes are located here.)

The transcript is coming soon.

This Week's Guest

Dave Lashmet is the editor of Stansberry Venture Technology, a monthly advisory that takes a "venture capitalist" approach to investing. He was one of the first employees at Stansberry Research back in the early days of the business. His unique insight into new technologies has led to some of the biggest gains in the company's history. Dave has spent 10-plus years teaching and writing about medicine and technology at major research universities. He has also conducted research at some of the most important facilities in North America, including Harvard Medical School, Johns Hopkins University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the Canadian Centers for Disease Control, just to name a few.

Dave returned to Stansberry Research in 2014 after a stint at a consumer-electronics company where he managed a team of experts. His work there took him around the world, delivering presentations in Germany, Taiwan, China, Canada, New York, and Los Angeles. He has even delivered a briefing before a congressional delegation. Dave is also an analyst for Stansberry's Investment Advisory.