What Is One of the Best Pharmaceutical Stocks to Own for the Next 10 Years?

By Matthew Benjamin – Feb 14, 2026 at 2:25PM ESTKey PointsDrug companies must continue to fill their pipelines.Lilly recently made three key deals.We’re bullish on these 10 stocks ›NYSE: LLYEli LillyMarket Cap$983BToday's Changeangle-down(0.33%) $3.46Current Price$1040.00Price as of February 13, 2026 at 3:58 PM ETEli Lilly continues to pursue smart acquisitions for the long term.The pharmaceutical industry can be a tricky investment. Remember Pfizer (PFE +0.40%) back in 2020? Its stock price shot from around $33 in February 2020 to nearly $60 by December due to its rapid production/approval of a COVID-19 vaccine. It was the drug stock to own at the time. Since then, demand for that vaccine has waned, and the stock has been on a downward ride. After plummeting in 2023, the price has moved sideways since early 2024. It now sits at around $28, lower than its pre-COVID price. Demand for certain types of drugs can clearly be volatile. Plus, all drug companies face patent expirations when competitors can launch cheaper generic versions and steal market share. A drug patent is typically 20 years, but because drug development takes so long (often more than 10 years), much of a patent is used up before the drug comes to market. So, the effective market exclusivity is often just 10 to 12 years. Source: Getty Images. Drug companies must continually fill the pipeline So if you want a pharmaceutical stock for the long term, 10 years or more, you need to look for companies that continue to fill their pipelines, ideally with the next blockbuster drug. That's exactly what Eli Lilly (LLY +0.33%) has been up to. ExpandNYSE: LLYEli LillyToday's Change(0.33%) $3.46Current Price$1040.00Key Data PointsMarket Cap$983BDay's Range$1033.82 - $1064.2252wk Range$623.78 - $1133.95Volume150KAvg Vol3.3MGross Margin83.04%Dividend Yield0.74% It's already been crowned the winner of the massive GLP-1 drug category, the class of medications that have proven extremely effective in lowering blood sugar levels and promoting weight loss. And this week, Lilly announced a $2.4 billion acquisition of Orna Therapeutics, which is developing innovative drugs that can manipulate a patient's genes and/or cells to fight diseases -- inside a patient's body, not in a lab. Just before the Orna announcement, Lilly announced it was paying $350 million upfront to collaborate with a Chinese biotechnology company to develop treatments for immune disorders and cancer. In January, it announced another billion-dollar deal with a German company to develop hearing loss gene therapies. That kind of foresight is what can keep a drug stock moving higher in the long term.Read NextFeb 13, 2026 •By Matthew BenjaminDid Eli Lilly Just Make a Deal for Its Next Blockbuster Drug?Feb 12, 2026 •By Adria CiminoEli Lilly vs Novo Nordisk in the Weight Loss Drug Market: Here's What Investors Need to Know.Feb 11, 2026 •By Prosper Junior Bakiny3 Reasons to Buy Eli Lilly StockFeb 10, 2026 •By David Jagielski, CPAThinking About Investing in GLP-1 Stocks? Here Are 3 Things You Need to KnowFeb 10, 2026 •By Reuben Gregg BrewerEli Lilly Is Partnering with Gene-Editing Start-up Seamless Therapeutics. Here's What Investors Need to Know.Feb 10, 2026 •By Adria CiminoCould Eli Lilly Turn Today's GLP‑1 Obesity Boom Into Multi‑Decade, Millionaire‑Maker Gains?About the AuthorMatthew Benjamin is a contributing Motley Fool stock market and investing analyst covering publicly-traded companies across all sectors. Prior to The Motley Fool, Matt was a senior markets expert at an investing newsletter in Baltimore, an editorial consultant to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and an economics correspondent at Bloomberg News. He holds a B.A. from Bucknell University and an M.A. from New York University. Fun fact: Matt has met every Federal Reserve Chair from Paul Volcker through Jerome Powell.TMFMbenjamin68Stocks MentionedEli LillyNYSE: LLY$1040.00 (+0.33%) $+3.46PfizerNYSE: PFE$27.58 (+0.40%) $+0.11*Average returns of all recommendations since inception. Cost basis and return based on previous market day close.