Amgen Q2 - Better Sales In Leading Drugs

Vestact-recommended pharma company Amgen had second-quarter results out late last week. The numbers were better than expected with revenue of just under $6.6 billion and profits of $4.65 per share. The beat was driven by better sales of Repatha, Prolia, Lumakras, and their biosimilar portfolio.

Sales of the lung cancer-treatment drug Lumakras are finally picking up. Lumakras' commercial performance is important because it's the first drug in a potential blockbuster non-small cell lung cancer market, and it's one of the growth drivers Amgen is banking on. Lumakras is also being tested in combination with Merck's Keytruda and Roche's Tecentriq, which is promising.

The company also announced the acquisition of ChemoCentryx to add to Amgen's inflammation and nephrology portfolio, which Byron covers below.

Since we added Amgen to our model portfolio in September 2015 it has crawled higher, slowly. The share price has risen by 70% and it has maintained a dividend yield above 3% throughout. It's been a reliable, if unspectacular performer. Not a bad thing, although we are keen to see them accelerate their sales growth in the years ahead.