AMGEN QUARTER EARNINGS UP 7.9%.Byline: Jim Finkle Bloomberg News Amgen Inc., the world's largest biotechnology company, said second-quarter earnings rose 7.9 percent, beating expectations, as the government eased restrictions on Medicare payments Noun 1. medicare payment - a check reimbursing an aged person for the expenses of health care medicare check bank check, check, cheque - a written order directing a bank to pay money; "he paid all his bills by check" for Epogen, one of its two major drugs. Thousand Oaks-based Amgen's net income rose to $216.3 million, or 82 cents a diluted share, from $200.5 million, or 72 cents, a year earlier. The company was expected to earn 74 cents, the average estimate of analysts surveyed by First Call Corp. Revenue rose 7.9 percent to $611.2 million from $566.7 million. Medicare said last year it wouldn't pay for Epogen to treat anemic anemic pertaining to anemia. dialysis patients whose red blood-cell count exceeds a certain level. That hurt sales of Epogen, which are paid for almost entirely by Medicare and made up half of Amgen's $2.4 billion revenue in 1997. Loosening loosening /loo·sen·ing/ (loo´sen-ing) freeing from restraint or strictness. loosening of associations of those restrictions in March and the end of June will allow the company to post 1998 earnings of ``a few cents'' above $3.05, currently the highest forecast of analysts following the company, 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. said. ``Physicians can treat patients pretty much the way they think patients should be treated with very few exceptions,'' Binder said after the results were released. Growth in Epogen sales will continue to accelerate as a second set of changes implemented by the government at the end of June takes effect, he said. Amgen shares fell $2.625 to $71.5625. The earnings were released after the close of U.S. stock markets. ``Amgen blew the whole world away and it will open extremely strong tomorrow,'' said David Saks, a Gruntal & Co. analyst with a ``strong buy'' recommendation on the stock. The relaxation in the Medicare guidelines made some patients eligible for Epogen reimbursement Reimbursement Payment made to someone for out-of-pocket expenses has incurred. who had been exempted from coverage under a September 1997 order from the Health Care Financing Administration Health Care Financing Administration, n.pr department in the U.S. agency of Health and Human Services responsible for the oversight of the Medicaid and Medicare benefit programs, including guidelines, payment, and coverage policies. . |
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