AMGEN SHARES SOARING; DRUG MAKER LIFTED BY EARNINGS NEWS.Byline: Jim Finkle Bloomberg News Amgen Inc. shares rose 6.9 percent Friday, a day after the world's largest biotechnology company reported higher-than-expected fourth-quarter results and a 2-for-1 stock split. Amgen shares rose $8.25 to $127.8125 and traded at an all-time high of $129.75. The company, citing growth of its anemia drug Epogen, said after the markets closed Thursday that its net income rose 33 percent to $239 million, or 90 cents a share, beating the 84-cent average estimate of analysts surveyed by First Call Corp. ``Those are spectacular numbers,'' said Hemant Shah, an independent drug industry analyst. Amgen's earnings have been rising since the U.S. government in March relaxed restrictions on reimbursements for Epogen, which is almost entirely paid for by the government's Medicare health insurance program. The restrictions were imposed in May 1997 on use of the drug to treat patients on kidney dialysis Dialysis, Kidney Definition Dialysis treatment replaces the function of the kidneys, which normally serve as the body's natural filtration system. . 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. said Thursday that he expects growth of Epogen to be ``similar'' to 1998, when sales grew 19 percent to $1.38 billion. Analysts' forecasts for Amgen's 1999 earnings range from $3.15 to $3.62. Binder binder: see combine. An earlier Microsoft Office workbook file that let users combine related documents from different Office applications. The documents could be viewed, saved, opened, e-mailed and printed as a group. said he is ``comfortable with the high end of that range.'' Investors also have high hopes for an experimental drug in Amgen's pipeline - an extended-release version of Epogen 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. NESP NESP Neuroendocrine Secretory Protein NESP Navy EHF SATCOM Program NESP Nurse Educator Scholarship Program NESP Navy EHF Satellite Program NESP National Environmental Studies Project NESP National Education Supercomputer Program , which analysts say could have annual sales of more than $1 billion. Shares of Thousand Oaks-based Amgen have surged 41 percent since Dec. 18 when the company won a legal battle with Johnson & Johnson, allowing the biotech bi·o·tech n. Informal Biotechnology. biotech Noun short for biotechnology Noun 1. company to retain full rights to NESP. |
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