Jim Cramer: This Little-Talked-About Drug Could Target the “Biggest Market of All Time” Aside From Eli Lilly’s GLP-1 Drugs
Jim Cramer is flagging an Amgen drug that Wall Street has largely ignored, and he thinks the cardiovascular opportunity behind it could rival the most valuable pharmaceutical market ever created.
Jim Cramer used his August 31 CNBC Stop Trading segment to argue that Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN | AMGN Price Prediction) has rallied in 2026 due to a catalyst Wall Street had overlooked:
“People are talking about the incredible movement in Amgen, which is up about 31% this year. And a lot of it has to do with a particular drug that people aren’t talking about, which is Repatha.“
Amgen recently pushed to a new 52-week high of $447.03, and the company has a market cap of roughly $233 billion.
Cramer Says Repatha Is the Catalyst Investors Are Missing
Jim Cramer described Repatha as “A shot that you take every other week, and what it does is reduce the risk of death by 20% in people who have high risk for a heart attack or stroke.” Cramer also said the drug “works against diabetes and high cholesterol.”
Cramer noted how cardiologists are increasingly pushing LDL cholesterol as low as possible, an evolving practice pattern that, in his view, expands the pool of patients who could be candidates for intensified lipid-lowering therapy over time. He paired that with a commercial caveat: “This Repatha is so revolutionary, but it was hard. You had to fight the insurance companies.” Efficacy and reimbursement are separate issues, and payer resistance can gate the revenue ramp-up.
Repatha Sales Jumped 37% to $953 Million
On Amgen’s Q2 2026 earnings call held August 4, CEO Robert A. Bradway said, “Starting with general medicine, Repatha delivered $953 million in second-quarter sales, growing 37% year over year.” Management flagged that U.S. new-to-brand prescriptions are growing more than 50% year over year, split roughly evenly between expanded cardiologist use and adoption by primary-care physicians treating high-risk primary-prevention patients.
Repatha is one of six growth drivers that grew 26% in aggregate and represented nearly 70% of second-quarter product sales. Amgen raised full-year guidance to $38.2-$39.4 billion in revenue and non-GAAP EPS of $22.30 to $23.50. On August 31, Amgen published fresh cardiovascular data from the ESC Congress 2026 tied to Repatha’s primary-prevention profile, the same day Cramer’s segment aired.
Why Cramer Is Comparing the Opportunity to Eli Lilly
Cramer said Repatha could be the biggest opportunity behind what Eli Lilly (NYSE:LLY) is targeting with its GLP-1: “That’s going to be the biggest market of all time, with the exception of what Eli Lilly has tapped into.” On August 27, in the Am I Diversified segment, Cramer called Lilly “the trillion dollar drug company that I like so much.”
Lilly carries a market cap around $1.05 trillion and trades at a forward P/E of 32, versus Amgen’s forward P/E of 19. Lilly shares are up 9.83% year to date after a 6.44% pullback in the past week.
Key Takeaways
Repatha is becoming a big piece of Amgen’s story. With quarterly sales approaching $1 billion and growing 37% annually, the drug is becoming a meaningful growth engine for the company. Cramer argues that investors may still be underestimating how large that cardiovascular opportunity can become.
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Thomas Richmond is a financial writer and content strategist with 5+ years of experience covering stocks and financial markets. He has published over 250 articles focused on individual stock analysis, helping investors better understand business fundamentals, stock valuations, and long-term opportunities.
Thomas previously served as a Content Lead at TIKR, a stock research platform, where he helped scale the company’s blog to hundreds of articles per month and contributed to a weekly newsletter reaching more than 100,000 investors.
He specializes in breaking down complex companies into clear, actionable insights for everyday investors, with a focus on fundamentals-driven research.
His work has also been featured on platforms including Seeking Alpha and Sure Dividend.
Outside of work, Thomas enjoys weight lifting and soccer.
