Shares of biotechs moved lower in afternoon trading Wednesday — along with the broader markets — even though Amgen (AMGN) topped quarterly earnings and revenue views after Tuesday’s close and analysts expect strong results from Biogen Idec (BIIB) and Celgene (CELG) when they report on Thursday. Wednesday’s dip comes during an otherwise robust recent run for IBD’s Medical-Biomed/Biotech group, which ranks No. 1 out of 197 industries tracked. The
Four big drug companies gave mixed fourth-quarter reports and guidance Tuesday as patent losses and foreign-exchange rates clouded the near-term future, while gene-sequencer Illumina posted better-than-expected earnings. After the close, Amgen (AMGN) said its Q4 earnings rose 19% to $2.16 a share, beating consensus by 11 cents. Revenue for the big biotech rose 6% to $5.33 billion, more than $100 million above views. The company affirmed 2015
Hot biotech IPO Kite Pharma (KITE) jumped to a new high Monday, up 9%, after it inked a deal with Amgen worth up to $585 million. The two companies will develop the next generation of Kite’s chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapies for cancer, with Amgen (AMGN) supplying the targets. Amgen is paying $60 million upfront and up to $525 million in milestone payments if the products get through the approval process. After launch, Kite is