Amgen's record quarter
On July 22, Amgen Pharmaceuticals (Thousand Oaks, CA, USA) posted the largest ever biotech quarterly revenue of $2.04 billion for the second quarter of 2003, exceeding its own and analysts' expectations. Anemia drugs Epogen and the long-acting version Aranesp were held partly responsible for boosting worldwide sales 53% to $959 million. Earnings from Aranesp, totaling $348 million, were unexpected because the US Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (Baltimore, MD, USA) had refused to reimburse the drug at its full price owing to its functional equivalence to the less expensive Procrit by Johnson & Johnson (J&J; New Brunswick, NJ, USA) (Nat. Biotechnol. 20, 1182, 2002). However, reports from Europe that patients taking J&J's drug (marketed as Eprex in Europe) contracted pure red cell aplasia, a severe form of anemia, triggered a resurgence of interest in Aranesp (see p. 956). However, some industry observers are not impressed with the company's pipeline. Amgen CEO, Kevin Sharer, was quoted as saying that 50% of drugs in the company's pipeline come from in-licensing deals and acquisitions. LD
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