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Some investors believe you make money when you buy a stock, not when you sell it. The logic behind this idea is that investing in the right stock at the right time -- and holding onto it for a while -- is one of the best formulas for earning terrific returns.

So, a company being near its 52-week low is no reason to avoid it. On the contrary, that might be the best time to invest, provided there are good reasons to believe it will bounce back.

With that in mind, let's consider two stocks that haven't performed well recently and are now near their 52-week lows but that are still worth investing in: CRISPR Therapeutics (NASDAQ: CRSP) and Amgen (NASDAQ: AMGN).

1. CRISPR Therapeutics

CRISPR Therapeutics is a mid-stage biotech specializing in gene editing. The company has just one product on the market, Casgevy, which treats transfusion-dependent beta-thalassemia and sickle cell disease, two rare blood disorders. Casgevy has been on the market for a little more than a year. It became the first gene-editing treatment that uses the Nobel Prize-winning CRISPR technique, an impressive achievement by CRISPR Therapeutics.

That said, due to the complexity of administering gene-editing treatments, it is not yet generating revenue for CRISPR. That, combined with the fact that the drugmaker remains unprofitable, explains why it is significantly lagging the market. However, there is much to like about CRISPR Therapeutics. First, Casgevy's potential is large, even if the biotech will share the spoils with Vertex Pharmaceuticals, with whom it developed the medicine.

With little competition on the market for Casgevy, a price of $2.2 million in the U.S., increased third-party coverage, and a total target population of at least 58,000 patients, the medicine should generate well over $1 billion in sales at its peak. Second, CRISPR has several other promising pipeline candidates.

Recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted the Regenerative Medicine Advanced Therapy (RMAT) designation to the company's CTX112, a potential therapy for certain B-cell malignancies. This designation is reserved for investigational medicines that meet certain conditions, including targeting a serious or life-threatening disease with few treatment options and having produced promising preliminary evidence of efficacy.

It also helps speed up the development of therapies. So, this was a big deal for CRISPR. The biotech has several other exciting candidates beyond CX112. There are some risks associated with CRISPR Therapeutics. Its pipeline programs, even CX112, could flop, for instance, a typical issue biotech companies -- especially smaller ones -- have to deal with. However, CRISPR Therapeutics' shares could soar if it makes progress with its pipeline and Casgevy starts ramping up its sales.