January 28, 2005

AMGEN REPORTS GROWTH IN 2004 Q4, FULL YEAR

Amgen Inc. reported an increase in 2004 fourth-quarter and full-year net income and revenue, attributing the rise to higher sales of its anemia and arthritis biotech brand drugs.

The biotechnology company's fourth-quarter net income was $689 million, compared with $547 million in 2003. Adjusted net income for the quarter rose 22 percent, to $749 million in 2004 from $615 million in 2003. Net earnings per share increased to $0.53 in fourth quarter 2004 from $0.41 in 2003, while adjusted earnings per share increased 26 percent, to $0.58 from $0.46.

Analysts had forecast earnings per share of $0.61, according to Reuters Estimates.

Amgen's total revenue jumped 24 percent to $2.9 billion in the fourth quarter of 2004 from $2.3 billion in 2003.

Combined fourth-quarter sales of anemia pharma name therapies Epogen (epoetin alfa) and Aranesp (darbepoetin alfa) increased 21 percent from $1.2 billion in 2003 to $1.4 billion in 2004. Sales of Enbrel (etanercept), used to treat rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis, increased 49 percent in the fourth quarter of 2004 to $567 million, up from $380 million in the previous year's fourth quarter.

For fiscal year 2004, net income rose 5 percent to $2.4 billion, or $1.81 per share, from $2.3 billion, or $1.69 per share, in 2003. Adjusted net income increased 24 percent to $3.1 billion in 2004 from $2.5 billion in 2003. Adjusted earnings per share for the year rose 26 percent, to $2.40 in 2004 from $1.90 in 2003. Total revenue increased 26 percent to $10.6 billion.

For 2005, Amgen said it anticipates total revenue growth in the high single digits and adjusted earnings per share of between $2.70 and $2.85, excluding charges.

Amgen shares closed at $61.58, down $1.98, or 3.1 percent, in heavy trading on the Nasdaq.

July 28, 2004

CMS ISSUES PROPOSED RULES FOR MEDICARE COVERAGE, PAYMENTS TO PHYSICIANS

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services proposed rules that would cover new preventive benefits and increase by 1.5 percent reimbursements to physicians who see Medicare patients, beginning next year. However, payments for several oncology drugs would be reduced, according to The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.

CMS said Medicare payments to health care professionals would rise from an estimated $52.7 billion in 2004 to a projected $55 billion in 2005 under the proposed regulations. The new rules also propose Medicare cover certain cardiovascular and diabetes screening tests as well as counseling from a hospice-employed physician for determining end-of-life services for beneficiaries who are terminally ill.

For most Part B drugs, the standard payment rate would be set at 106 percent of the average sales price (ASP).

The government also proposed reducing reimbursements by up to 89 percent for the respiratory drugs albuterol sulfate and ipratroprium bromide, NYT reported. CMS said that when these drugs are administered through a nebulizer, they are currently paid at 80 percent of the average wholesale price, "an amount that the Inspector General and the Government Accountability Office found to be grossly in excess of their actual acquisition cost." The 2005 payment rate will be based on the ASP, but the agency now plans to discount or cover inhalation drugs that are delivered through metered dose inhalers.

CMS also said it is considering "a net reduction in total oncology Medicare revenues as a result of more accurate payments for drugs," but these changes may be offset by a review being undertaken by the American Medical Association's Current Procedural Terminology Editorial Panel, other changes in service payments and utilization growth.

More specifically, WSJ reported that CMS plans to pay 7 percent lower reimbursements for Amgen Inc.'s pharmaceutical name Epogen (epoetin alfa) and Ortho Biotech Product LP's pharma brand Procrit (epoetin alfa), anemia drugs that provide the greatest revenue to oncologists. Payments for Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.'s Taxol (paclitaxel) and GlaxoSmithKline Plc's Navelbine (vinorelbine tartrate), which have both come off patent, would drop 81 percent and 21 percent, respectively. Navelbine is under license from Pierre Fabre Medicament. These lower payments could reduce oncologists' revenues by between 2 and 8 percent, WSJ added.

Finally, the rules propose several changes to how Medicare pays for services for patients with end-stage renal disease.

Comments about the rules will be accepted until Sept. 24, and the agency plans to issue the final rules by Nov. 1.

April 26, 2004

AMGEN POSTS HIGHER Q1 INCOME, REVENUE THAN IN PRIOR-YEAR

For the first quarter of 2004, Amgen reported a 35 percent rise in adjusted net income and a 33 percent rise in total revenue, which were driven by strong sales of its anemia pharmaceutical names Epogen (epoetin alfa) and Aranesp (darbepoetin alfa) and arthritis drug Enbrel (etanercept).

Adjusted net earnings rose to $752.3 million, or $0.57 per diluted share, up from $557.9 million, or $0.42 per share, in the first quarter of 2003. These results exclude certain expenses related to the 2002 acquisition of Immunex Corp.

Amgen's first-quarter earnings beat the expectations of Wall Street analysts polled by Thomson First Call "by a penny," according to The Associated Press.

Total revenue increased from $1.76 billion in the previous year's first quarter to $2.34 billion in the latest quarter.

Pharam drugs Epogen and Aranesp achieved $1.1 billion in combined sales as compared with $802 million generated in the prior-year period. Overall sales of Enbrel also increased by 45 percent to $397 million. Amgen said "[t]he increase was driven by greater demand in rheumatology due to greater use of biologics and wider use by dermatologists driven by the psoriatic arthritis indication."

Amgen's shares closed at $58.31, up $1.17, or 2.1 percent, in heavy trading on the Nasdaq.