Nowadays, Amgen is a gray eminence among biotechs. With more than $18 billion in sales last year, it’s the kingpin in an industry that’s turned into one of America’s biggest innovation machines, and one of the highest-returning stock groups of the last few years. It’s hard to believe now, but back in the 1980s biotech was still a largely unproven business model. And Amgen (AMGN), founded in 1980 and public in 1982, was one of the
Amgen (AMGN) stock was up 2.5% in afternoon trading on the stock market today after the company presented five studies on its new cholesterol drug over the weekend. Results eased safety concerns raised earlier in the month. Competitors Regeneron (REGN), Sanofi (SNY), Pfizer (PFE) and Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY) also presented data, but their shares were up a fraction or flat Monday afternoon. At the American College of Cardiology meeting, Amgen
In recent decades, high cholesterol has been Big Pharma’s gravy train. The statins, oral drugs that lower “bad” cholesterol, turned into the best-selling drugs in history, with Pfizer’s Lipitor peaking at nearly $14 billion in 2006 sales. Now, however, all the statins have gone off-patent or are about to. So Pfizer (PFE) and a passel of other companies — led by Amgen (AMGN), Regeneron (REGN) and Regeneron’s partner Sanofi (SNY) — are turning to a