Amgen has right prescription for sales of blockbuster drugs. (Up Front).

At the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, which treats 3,000 patients a year, almost every desk has a pen from Amgen Inc. touting its anemia treatment Aranesp.

"You can tell how hard a company is pushing a drug by the number of pens," said staff member Nancy Cherry, a clinical pharmacist. "There's been very significant pressure from Amgen."

Thousand Oaks-based Amgen, the world's biggest biotechnology company, last week cited Aranesp as one reason for a jump in first-quarter net income to $493 million, compared with $341 million for the like period a year ago. Revenues rose 75 percent, to $1.76 billion.

Chief Executive Kevin Sharer is counting on the medication as he seeks to double Amgen's drug revenue to $10 billion by 2005. So far, his strategy for Aranesp is working, investors said. Johnson & Johnson last week said its rival product, Procrit, is losing sales.

"Amgen is getting competitive," said Erin Xie, an analyst for State Street Research & Management, whose funds held 33.6 million Amgen shares in December, according to regulatory filings.

Since Sharer moved into the company's top spot in 2000, Amgen has started selling three medicines expected to generate $1 billion in annual sales. He's stepped up marketing, hiring celebrities like Danny Glover to push products, and is taking on competitors in court, on Capitol Hill and at doctors' offices.

New version

Aranesp is a longer-lasting version of Amgen's Epogen, one of the first biotech drugs to top $1 billion in sales. Amgen also got Enbrel, a potential $3 billion-a-year rheumatoid-arthritis medicine, by buying rival Immunex. And in 2002, it introduced Neulasta, which helps chemotherapy patients fight infections.

"Most pharmaceutical companies are glad to have one blockbuster drug," said Sven Borho, general partner at Orbimed Advisors, which owns about 3.7 million Amgen shares. "Basically, Amgen has only blockbuster drugs."

Investors are paying a premium for Amgen's success. The company, with a market value of $78.3 billion, is more than four times the size of its closest rival, Genentech Inc. Amgen's 2002 revenue of $5.5 billion was about twice Genentech's $2.7 billion.

None of the company's three new drugs has yet reached the $1 billion sales mark, the definition of a so-called blockbuster. Amgen expects total 2003 product sales of as much as $7.2 billion.

Sharer's bid to double sales requires taking on Johnson & Johnson in several areas. Sharer, who declined through a spokesman to comment for this story, has said he lost one round last year when the U.S. government decided to cut the amount it pays for Medicare patients getting Aranesp by 53 percent.

"We were like a teenager -- we had a lot of confidence and not a lot of experience," Sharer told a group of reporters in February. "In this case, J&J got there early and I think J&J out-maneuvered us."

Sharer, a former U.S. Navy nuclear-submarine engineer, struck back by suing the government, lobbying Congress and sending sales representatives into doctor's offices and clinics armed with pens and marketing material. The U.S. agency that runs Medicare is reconsidering the Aranesp payment, a spokesman said in March.

Enbrel

Amgen is also fighting back against Johnson & Johnson in the rheumatoid-arthritis market. As Immunex and later Amgen initially struggled to make enough Enbrel to meet demand, Johnson & Johnson moved in. Last year, its rival drug, Remicade, outsold Enbrel for the first time and probably remains on top, analysts said.

Sales of Remicade, also used to treat the bowel disorder Crohn's disease, reached $409 million during the first quarter. Enbrel sales were between $250 million and $270 million for the same period, analysts estimate.

Amgen is responding with 60-second commercials that began airing in mid-January and feature Erik Lindbergh, aviation pioneer Charles Lindbergh's grandson. Even so, Enbrel probably won't catch Remicade in the rheumatoid arthritis market until 2004, said SG Cowen analyst Eric Schmidt, who rates Amgen a "strong buy."

Amgen is using commercials to sell Neulasta as well. It began airing spots last year in Los Angeles during shows like "Wheel of Fortune" and "ER." Amgen hired actor Rob Lowe to promote the drug on talk shows and to patient groups. The company won't say how much he's paid. Amgen says its marketing activities are secret and won't discuss them.