Amgen 2Q - strong pipeline

On Thursday the world's largest biotech firm Amgen reported a better-than-expected set of numbers for their second quarter. Amgen raised their full-year forecast, as the company sees more growth stemming from Prolia, an osteoporosis drug, and Repatha, a drug that fights bad cholesterol.

Revenues for the quarter were up 4% to $6.06 billion topping analysts expectation of $5.73 billion. Product sales were up 2% to $5.68 billion, and net earnings were up 7% to $2.3 billion. Prolia sales were up 21% to $610 million making it one of Amgen's fastest growing drugs, Repatha sales are starting to soar, sales were up 78% to $148 million, a slower uptake than many had predicted. However, the rheumatoid arthritis drug Enbrel fell 11% to $1.3 billion due to increased competition. Kyprolis and XGeva are other drugs that showed double-digit sales growth.

Amgen has a new drug called Aimovig which got U.S. FDA approval in May. Aimovig is a unique drug that significantly reduces migraines by blocking the activity of a receptor involved in migraine attacks. Amgen didn't disclose how much this drug has made in sales, but this is the next frontier for the company, as this drug has a big market in need of the treatment.

The drug isn't cheap at $575 a month, which is $6 900 a year, and as a result many medical aids have been pushing back; forcing some patients to buy out of pocket. What has helped is that Amgen offers a two free month trial of the drug to all new patients.



The company also announced that it will be replacing the current head of research and development Sean Harper with David Reese, an in-house veteran currently running translational sciences and the oncology department. The future of the company looks promising here, it trades at a PE of 13.7 next years earnings making it cheaper than the likes of Biogen but with a better pipeline of drugs.