Is Amgen Stock Too Dependent On Six Growth Drivers?
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More than 70% of Amgen’s (AMGN) product sales in fiscal Q3 2026 came from what management calls its six key growth drivers: Repatha, EVENITY and TEZSPIRE, plus its oncology, rare disease and biosimilar portfolios. Those six grew 27% from a year earlier, against 8% for product sales as a whole, so sales of the rest of Amgen’s products fell by about 20%. What is behind the gap between those six and everything else Amgen sells?
Why Some Amgen Drugs Grow While Others Shrink
Management credits patient demand and updated treatment guidelines for several of Amgen’s fast-growing drugs. Repatha, which lowers LDL cholesterol, generated $1.1 billion in fiscal Q3 2026, up 37% from a year earlier. Management said U.S. weekly new-to-brand prescriptions for Repatha rose more than 60%, and that updated guidelines back earlier, more intensive cholesterol lowering. Meanwhile, UPLIZNA sales climbed 191% to $451 million. Management credited this increase to strong patient demand across all approved uses.
TEPEZZA shows the other side. It sold $526 million in the quarter, down 6%, and management tied the fall to an inventory build in the same quarter a year earlier. TEPEZZA belongs to the rare disease portfolio, one of the six growth drivers, which grew 21% as a whole.
Despite fast-growing drugs such as Repatha, Amgen’s overall growth has slowed. Over the twelve months to September 2026, revenue grew 8.2%, down from 10.6% in the twelve months to September 2025. Two years earlier, in the twelve months to September 2024, growth had been 21.2%, a one-year jump from 1.9% the year before. The six growth drivers are pulling ahead of a company whose growth has slowed two years running.
Can Amgen Keep Adding Fast-Growing Products?
Amgen has more products moving through its pipeline. Management reported positive Phase III results from three programs in fiscal Q3 2026, including dazodalibep in Sjogren’s disease. Management also said 17 of Amgen’s products grew by double digits in the quarter. Alongside these results, management raised Amgen’s 2026 revenue range to $38.9 billion to $39.7 billion.
The next big product is still a bet. In the quarter, research and development spending rose 11% from a year earlier. Management expects capital spending of about $2.6 billion in 2026 to scale manufacturing capacity and prepare for a potential launch of MariTide, a monthly obesity treatment in Phase III trials. MariTide’s Phase III results are not in yet. Management said it will have more to share on how well the drug works and how patients tolerate it when the studies read out.
How Far Has Amgen Stock Fallen In Past Sell-Offs?
Amgen stock fell less than the S&P 500 during most recent market shocks. In the 2022 inflation shock, the stock dropped 2.4%, compared with a 24% decline for the S&P 500 ETF. During the 2025 tariff shock, Amgen fell 11%, against a 19% drop for the fund. The exception was the 2023 regional banking crisis, when Amgen fell 10% and the fund fell 6.7%.
Amgen stock returned 49.3% over the past year, against 13.1% for the S&P 500. It trades at 26.8 times its past twelve months of earnings, a premium to 22.3 for the index, so the price likely assumes the six growth drivers keep growing fast.
If you hold Amgen, this is a risk to keep in proportion, not a reason for alarm. For the risk to be worth taking, those six growth drivers need to keep growing fast enough to more than make up for the rest of the portfolio. When Amgen reports again, expected in February 2027, the six drivers’ share of Amgen’s product sales and their growth are the figures to watch.
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