Key Points Amgen CEO Bob Bradway Made at J.P. Morgan

January 14, 2016
By Alex Keown, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff

SAN FRANCISCO – Investors looking for a company that could yield strong returns in 2016 should take a hard look at Amgen , analysts at the Motley Fool reported Thursday following another day of the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference.

Following a presentation by Amgen’s Chief Executive Officer Bob Bradway, Motley Fool analyst Sean Williams noted several key factors that highlight Amgen’s strengths, including the cardiovascular division it built from the ground up, six products it launched in 2015 and a nearly 20 percent earnings per share the company showed during the first nine months of the year. But those are not the only factors that should wow potential investors.

Amgen’s anti-cholesterol drug Repatha, a PSCK9 inhibitor, will have a big year, Williams said. Repatha, which was approved in 2015 to treat two rare genetic diseases known for high LDL-C, as well as patients who have atherosclerotic CV disease. In Phase III trials, Repatha lowered the bad cholesterol by about 60 percent and decreased the rate of cardiovascular events, including heart attack, heart failure leading to hospitalization and death, by approximately 50 percent. Pricepoint of the drug has been an issue for some prescribers, however, later this year a study on its effectiveness for cardiovascular disease will be released and if Repatha demonstrates a “statistically significant advantage in terms of reduced risk of death,” it will encourage a large number of physicians to prescribe the medication, Williams said.

While revenue from Repatha could explode this year, it is not the only drug in Amgen’s arsenal, so the company is not solely dependent on its revenue stream. Following its 2013 acquisition of Onyx Pharmaceuticals for $10.4 billion, Amgen has been in a stronger position with 10 products either ready for regulatory approval, or in mid- to-late stage clinical development. The company has announced several successes, including with its anti-migraine drug AMG 334, which cleared its Phase II trial endpoints in April. The trial showed the drug, when compared to a placebo, lowered mean migraine days per month in patients—but only when delivered at its highest dose. In April, the FDA granted approval to Amgen’s drug Corlanor (ivabradine) to treat patients with chronic heart failure—a drug that could bring in approximately $500 million or more in annual revenue some analysts have predicted. Amgen acquired U.S. commercial rights to Corlanor from French drugmaker Servier, which sells the medicine in Europe. In December, the FDA also approved Blincyto, a drug designed to treat a rare form of acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Analysts predict Blincyto could generate about $400 million in annual sales. Another drug Amgen has in its pipeline is Kyprolis, designed to treat multiple myeloma. Data from Phase III trials in March showed patients taking Kyprolis as part of their drug regimen lived approximately 18.7 months without their multiple myeloma worsening, which is about twice as long as patients taking Velcade, a popular treatment produced by Takeda Pharmaceuticals and Johnson & Johnson .

Amgen is also making headway in the biosimilar market, having nine biosimilar molecules in its pipeline, Williams said. Amgen has the potential to launch five of its biosimilars between 2017 and 2019, with the most advanced being ABP 501, a biosimilar for the anti-inflammatory treatment Humira, Williams noted.

Another key for investors to note is its streamlining of costs to increase efficiency. Amgen has freed up capital from laying off about 20 percent of its workforce, part of an effort to slash $15 billion in expenses by 2018. The company has eliminated more than 4,000 global jobs from its payroll. The freed capital is expected to be used to drive additional clinical trials in an effort to get more drugs to market. Williams note this strategy has worked “by allowing Amgen to boost dividends to its shareholders in a big way, and it's also created an 11 percentage point improvement in adjusted operating margins since 2013.”