Cara Therapeutics Inc (CARA)

[Triple9]

Having said that, the market apparently is starting to take notice of the commercial potential of Cara's experimental pain med CR845, which is on track to produce a pivotal-stage readout in the acute post-operative pain setting in the first half of the year. If successful, CR845 would be one step closer toward displacing standard opioids like morphine and fentanyl in acute pain situations.

Unless you've been living under a rock over the past decade, you're probably well aware that the U.S. is experiencing a severe opioid epidemic that's reportedly affecting over 20 million Americans at present. The point is that the highly addictive nature of opioids -- combined with their severe side effects, which can even be life-threatening -- is driving a rigorous search for alternative pain relievers within the pharmaceutical industry. And that's where Cara's CR845 comes into the story.

Unlike morphine, which targets the mu-opioid receptor, CR845 is a kappa opioid receptor agonist. As such, it should theoretically provide comparable levels of pain relief but without the problematic side effects. And if this hypothesis is borne out by the clinical data, this drug could easily transform into a megablockbuster product given that over 60 million patients per year in the U.S. undergo procedures that require prescription pain meds.

The flip side of the coin is that CR845 is far from the first experimental pain med to target this huge unmet medical need. This need still exists because no single drug candidate has produced an overall clinical profile (efficacy plus safety) that's superior to morphine.

Summing up, Cara's stock could probably outperform even Nvidia's monstrous track record if CR845 does strike gold in its ongoing late-stage trial, but this ideal scenario is far from a sure thing given that replacing morphine has proven to be a tough nut to crack.

https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/03/01/3-growth-stocks-that-could-soar-more-than-nvidia.aspx