By Tess Stynes And Jonathan D. Rockoff
Amgen Inc. said fourth-quarter earnings rose about 27%, as sales
growth was driven by such key drugs as cancer therapy Kyprolis and
osteoporosis treatment Prolia. The company also said it is
preparing for the approval of new drugs, including a treatment for
high cholesterol.
The earnings results easily beat expectations.
Amgen reported a quarterly profit of $1.29 billion, or $1.68 a
share, up from $1.02 billion, or $1.33 a share, a year earlier.
Excluding acquisition and restructuring-related charges and
other items, earnings rose to $2.16 a share from $1.82. Revenue
increased 6.4% to $5.33 billion. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters
projected a per-share profit of $2.05 and revenue of $5.2 billion.
A key driver of Amgen's strong performance in earnings per share,
analysts said, was its receiving a research-and-development credit.
Amgen hadn't accounted for the credit, which analysts said added 14
or 15 cents a share.
Amgen, based in Thousand Oaks, Calif., has continued to showcase
its drug pipeline, which includes the potential for a number of
product launches this year. Like other big drug makers, Amgen needs
to bring new treatments to market, as older ones face the threat of
low-price competition. Its biggest launch could be of evolocumab, a
so-called PCSK9 drug for high cholesterol, though a rival medicine
from Sanofi SA and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. is up for earlier
approval from the Food and Drug Administration.
During October, the company laid out streamlining plans aimed at
generating as much as $1.5 billion in annual cost savings by 2018.
Chief Financial Officer David Meline said during an earnings call
that Amgen had realized $300 million in cost savings during
2014.
The company has faced pressure from activist Dan Loeb, who has
urged Amgen to trim its research and development structure and
potentially break up, separating its mature business from
faster-growing operations, an idea proposed earlier by Sanford
Bernstein analyst Geoffrey Porges.
In the latest reporting quarter, sales of Kyprolis rose by 25%
to $91 million, while sales for 2014 totaled $331 million in the
first full year of commercialization since Amgen's $10.4 billion
acquisition of Onyx Pharmaceuticals Inc. in 2013.
The drug was approved in the U.S. in 2012 as a treatment for a
blood cancer known as multiple myeloma. On Tuesday, Amgen said it
had submitted a supplemental new drug application in the U.S. and
an application for regulatory approval in the European Union for
Kyprolis as a treatment for relapsed multiple myeloma.
Combined sales of Neulasta and Neupogen, both of which are used
to prevent infections in patients receiving chemotherapy, rose 3%.
Neulasta sales rose 7% to $1.18 billion, mostly thanks to higher
prices, but Neupogen sales fell 11% to $274 million amid
lower-priced competition in the U.S.
Sales of Amgen's osteoporosis drugs again improved thanks to
stronger volume. Prolia revenue climbed by a third to $315 million,
while XGeva sales jumped 14% to $325 million. Enbrel sales
increased 11% to $1.34 billion.
Amgen also reaffirmed its guidance for 2015, and said it is not
making any adjustments for a stronger dollar. About 75% of Amgen
sales are in the U.S., and the company has a three-year rolling
hedging program to offset foreign-exchange movements, Mr. Meline
said. If the dollar remains at its current high levels, it would
hurt 2015 full-year revenues by about $250 million, or 5 cents a
share, Mr. Meline said.
Write to Tess Stynes at tess.stynes@wsj.com and Jonathan D.
Rockoff at Jonathan.Rockoff@wsj.com
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