Buy to open the January 20, 2017 call on NVS with a strike price of $72.50 at $1.20 or lower. Symbol (NVS170120C72.5)

This is a medium-range, bullish call on Novartis, which will be presenting at several brokerage conferences in early January. Tax loss selling on pharmaceutical stocks should be close to over, giving call buyers a good entry point.

I expect Novartis to give positive updates on newly-launched psoriasis drug Cosentyx and possibly updates on the timing of the FDA filing for AMG 334, the migraine drug it is developing with Amgen. The drug posted positive results in a late stage trial this fall.

Novartis is a global pharmaceutical company based in Switzerland. The company is one of the few drug companies growing revenue from higher volume instead of relying on double digit price increases.

The drug group has been slaughtered due to concerns over drug pricing. Novartis saw a 5% increase in volume of drugs sold in the most recent quarter with prices down 1%. The market has digested the impact of generic competition for its cancer drug Gleevac.

Earnings are expected to grow high single digit to low double digits over the next few years. A healthy pipeline of late stage drugs and success with some recently launched drugs should support strong revenue and earnings growth.