Stock Smackdown: Cramer vs. CAPS

There's no denying that Mad Money host Jim Cramer is entertaining, popular, and passionate. On many occasions, he's even right. So he's smart, funny, and the closest thing to a stock market rock star -- but is he smarter than you?

Cramming for Cramer
The Fool's free investing community, Motley Fool CAPS, aggregates the opinion of more than 140,000 members to assign ratings for each stock's likelihood of outperforming or underperforming the market.

Below, we look at some top stocks that Cramer picked and panned during last week's "lightning rounds," and compare them to the CAPS community's opinion of their future.

Cramer says
If you want to invest in innovative biopharmaceuticals, Jim Cramer thinks you should consider Celgene, which has a number of therapies that are either on the market or on their way there. However, if you want to dip a toe into the more speculative end of the pool, then Cramer's willing to countenance a position in VIVUS, a development and commercialization biopharma. Cramer said:

Now remember that also as a ... I think it's an erectile dysfunction ... it's got that ... I mean, it's sexual function in women, so it's got a bunch of things going. It is very, very speculative. It is Speculation Friday so, you know what? I'm going to endorse it because it's Friday, and I like spec ... Otherwise, I would say, listen ... we shouldn't be foolin' around ... we should be in Celgene or something like that ... but I'll bless it for now.

CAPS says
VIVUS's weight-loss treatment Qnexa has the potential to upend the obesity treatment market. Recent results from clinical trials showed the drug helped patients lose weight far better than a placebo did.

In replying to her own pitch in June, ocdgirl2000 believed Qnexa was a lock for FDA approval, because of its safety profile and the extreme need for the medication:

There is no reason to believe that qnexa will not be approved by the FDA. the drug is in it's 3rd phase, the two components that are in it are already on the market and have been on the market safely for many years. They may already be used together anyway! The difference is, this timed released formulation is more efficient, and much less is needed in order to be just as effective. So..if you are thinking about buying this stock based on the development of qnexa, take it from a patient who has been on all the combinations of diet meds there have been over the years and knows WHY the combination works, and that it DOES work, by turning off the desire for sweets and high carb snacks!

This Fool says
Those clinical trials really shook things up last month, sending VIVUS' stock soaring on the news. The highlight here is how far Qnexa's results outran trials of competing therapies, though such results aren't always comparable on a one-to-one basis.

A recent New York Times article highlighted Americans' extreme willingness to spend big bucks on weight-loss initiatives. But of the $59 billion they doled out last year, less than 1% of it went to prescription drugs. The Centers for Disease Control estimate that in 2006, it cost as much as $147 billion annually to fight obesity and its effects, a 9% slice of the total health-care spending pie.

A safe, effective weight-loss drug has been something of a Holy Grail for drugmakers and patients alike. Hopes have been dashed before. Meridia held great promise, but after its release, a number of adverse reactions (and deaths) led some public-interest groups to urge the FDA to ban the drug. While that didn't happen, the controversy points to the risks of trying to get a diet in a pill. If Qnexa can achieve that result safely, VIVUS could have a huge blockbuster on its hands.

Have your say
While CAPS members may stand with Jim Cramer or on opposite sides of the field, the investor-intelligence community is more than what some All-Stars think, even if they are TV personalities. What do you think? Is Cramer right, or off his rocker? On CAPS, there's no need to hedge your thoughts; head off right now to weigh in on VIVUS's prospects.

Motley Fool CAPS is a great place to start your own research on these stocks. Read a company's financial reports, scrutinize key data and charts, and examine the comments your fellow investors have made -- all from a stock's CAPS page. Best of all, it's free.