Amgen's Profit Rises on Improved Margins, Steady Top-line Growth

By Anne Steele 

Amgen Inc.'s profit rose 7.8% in the final quarter of the year as the biotechnology company continued to improve margins and see steady top-line growth.

Results beat Wall Street expectations. Amgen's forecast for the year, however, is more tepid than analysts had expected.

For 2017, Amgen expects revenue of $22.3 billion to $23.1 billion, just below the average analyst estimate for $23.31 billion. And the company forecast adjusted earnings between $11.80 and $12.60 a share, bracketing analysts' view of $12.46 a share.

Biosimilar competition continued to pressure Amgen's cancer drug Neupogen. Sales of the drug -- which began to see competition late in 2015 from Novartis AG's Zarxio -- dropped 34% to $173 million, mostly owing to competition in the U.S., the company said.

In August, Novartis AG's biosimilar for Amgen's Enbrel, which competes with Humira, also won FDA approval. But the drug remained the top contributor to Amgen's top line, with sales increasing 14% to $1.64 billion, thanks largely to a price increase.

As older drugs face intensified competition from lower-priced treatments, many drugmakers have been counting on new medicines brought to market, as well as cost cuts, to prop up sales.

On Thursday, Chief Executive Robert Bradway said the company anticipates several new product-development opportunities and launches in 2017.

Sales of one of Amgen's newer drugs, anti-cholesterol treatment Repatha, which initially got off to a slow start, accelerated in the latest quarter, reaching $58 million. That compared with $7 million in sales a year iearlier.

And sales of Amgen's multiple-myeloma drug Kyprolis, which failed to meet its primary endpoint of superior progression-free survival against a rival drug in a recent study -- results that could limit use in previously untreated patients -- shot up 24% to $183 million.

Sales of bone drugs Prolia and Xgeva also continued to be a revenue boon, rising 22% and 6% respectively.

In all for the December period, Amgen earned $1.94 billion, or $2.59 a share, up from $1.8 billion, or $2.37 a share, a year earlier. Excluding restructuring-related charges and other items, adjusted per-share earnings grew to $2.89 from $2.61. Revenue rose 7.7% to $5.97 billion.

Analysts expected adjusted per-share profit of $2.79 on $5.74 billion in revenue, according to Thomson Reuters.

Write to Anne Steele at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 02, 2017 16:21 ET (21:21 GMT)

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