Epogen Drug Sales Push Amgen Earnings Up 32%

Biotech giant Amgen in Thousand Oaks said first-quarter earnings rose 32% as sales of its blockbuster anemia drug Epogen soared.

Net income rose to $247 million or 46 cents a share, up from $187 million or 35 cents a year earlier. The results exceeded the 44-cent average estimate of analysts surveyed by First Call Corp.

Revenue rose 23% to $745.4 million from $605.4 million, led by a 30% increase in sales of Epogen, which reached $395 million.

Earnings have been rising since March 1998, when the federal government relaxed restrictions on how Epogen must be used to qualify for payment from the Medicare health insurance program, which funds virtually all kidney dialysis patients. Restrictions had been imposed in May 1997 on how the drug was used to treat patients on dialysis.

“Epogen is the dominant driver for this company’s earnings,” said Jay Silverman, a BancBoston Robertson Stephens analyst. “They seem to have enough momentum to keep this going.”

Sales of Neupogen, a cancer drug, rose 10% to $287 million.

Amgen Chief Executive Gordon Binder said he expects full-year earnings to range between $1.80 and $1.85.

Binder also said preliminary analysis of the first 522 patients enrolled in a large-scale study of NESP--a next-generation, extended-release version of Epogen--show that the drug is safe and effective.

The company expects those studies to be completed by the end of this year. They are the last of three rounds of human testing required before a company can seek U.S. approval of a drug.