AMGEN OUTDOES EXPECTATIONS ON TWO FRONTS.Byline: Jim Finkle Bloomberg News Amgen Inc., the world's largest biotechnology company, said second-quarter earnings rose a better-than-expected 24 percent. It also surprised investors by unveiling plans to seek U.S. approval to market a new arthritis treatment by year's end. Net income rose to $267.6 million, or 50 cents a share, from $216.3 million, or 41 cents, a year earlier. Results exceeded the 46-cent average estimate of analysts surveyed by First Call Corp. Total revenue rose 25 percent to $820.5 million from $656.9 million, led by a 27 percent increase in sales of its anemia drug Epogen to $428 million. The news boosted confidence that the company is doing well in promoting its products as well as making progress in bringing new drugs to market. Amgen has come under fire in recent years for taking too long to pull drugs with large market potential out of its pipeline. ``Now the financials looked good and they're making significant progress in the pipeline,'' said Akhtar Samad, a biotech bi·o·tech n. Informal Biotechnology. biotech Noun short for biotechnology Noun 1. analyst with Oscar Gruss & Son. Amgen fell 3 to 66.3125 in trading before the results were released, then rose as high as 71.5 after U.S. exchanges closed. The company on Friday moved up the earnings release to today, saying it was concerned about recent movement in the company's shares, which soared 14 percent last week. Amgen said it expects to file an application with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to gain approval for using its experimental drug IL-1ra as a treatment for rheumatoid arthritis rheumatoid arthritis Chronic, progressive autoimmune disease causing connective-tissue inflammation, mostly in synovial joints. It can occur at any age, is more common in women, and has an unpredictable course. , or RA. That will put the company into competition with Immunex Corp.'s Enbrel and Centocor Inc.'s Remicade, which is expected to win approval for RA later this year. Investors hadn't expected the company to file for approval so quickly because the drug has yet to enter Phase III Noun 1. phase III - a large clinical trial of a treatment or drug that in phase I and phase II has been shown to be efficacious with tolerable side effects; after successful conclusion of these clinical trials it will receive formal approval from the FDA trials, the last stage of testing the FDA FDA abbr. Food and Drug Administration FDA, n.pr See Food and Drug Administration. FDA, n.pr the abbreviation for the Food and Drug Administration. usually requires before it will consider a new drug for approval. The FDA decided that it won't be necessary for Amgen to do a Phase III trial after it had strong results in two Phase II trials, Amgen said. ``When we saw how good the data was from the second Phase II trial, we showed the data package to the FDA,'' said Amgen Chief Medical Officer George Morstyn. IL-1ra works by blocking a compound knows as IL-1 that scientists think plays a major role in causing diseases like rheumatoid arthritis. Immunex's Enbrel and Centocor's drugs work by blocking another compound, dubbed dub 1 tr.v. dubbed, dub·bing, dubs 1. To tap lightly on the shoulder by way of conferring knighthood. 2. To honor with a new title or description. 3. tumor necrosis factor tumor necrosis factor n. Abbr. TNF A protein that is produced in the presence of an endotoxin, especially by monocytes and macrophages, is able to attack and destroy tumor cells, and exacerbates chronic inflammatory diseases. , or TNF TNF abbr. tumor necrosis factor TNF, n an abbreviation for tumor necrosis f . ``We know there's a sizable percentage of nonresponders to both'' types of drugs, said Amgen Chief Executive Gordon Binder Gordon Binder is currently managing director of Coastview Capital, LLC, and previously was chairman of Amgen[1]. He joined Amgen in 1982, and previously had executive roles at the United Geophysical Corporation and the System Development Corporation. . ``One thing doctors and patients would hope is with the choice of two of them there would be one of each that's right for each person.'' Oscar Gruss analyst Samad said it's too early to gauge the effectiveness of drugs that target IL-1 in treating inflammatory diseases Noun 1. inflammatory disease - a disease characterized by inflammation disease - an impairment of health or a condition of abnormal functioning NEC, necrotizing enterocolitis - an acute inflammatory disease occurring in the intestines of premature infants; like rheumatoid arthritis. ``IL-1 has been around for a long time, but the drug industry has very little to show for its effort,'' he said. ``It'll be interesting to see what advantages come from Amgen's approach.'' |
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