Amgen has discontinued Phase 1 obesity candidate AMG 513, leaving MariTide as its sole weight loss asset. Meanwhile, executives said the company’s late-stage pipeline is largely full and future business development will focus on earlier-stage opportunities.
Though Amgen’s late-stage clinical plate may be “pretty full” right now, the pharma won’t slack off on business development, according to CEO Robert Bradway.
Amgen’s dealmaking push in the near-term, however, will be focused on “emerging shoots,” Bradway told investors on a Tuesday afternoon call presenting the company’s second quarter earnings. “We’re seeing some exciting early-stage programs in our industry right now,” he said, without providing further detail.
The pharma’s focus on early-stage and smaller deals seems to have disappointed analysts at Truist Securities, who wrote in a Tuesday note that the Amgen’s appetite for external innovation “appears smaller than we (and investors) had hoped.”
Instead, the analysts were hoping for “more creativity with excess capital,” pointing to Amgen’s $14 billion in cash and cash equivalents as of June 30. The company also recorded $57.3 billion in outstanding debt.
Even as it looks externally for young assets to build out its pipeline, Amgen revealed that it would discontinue the development of its Phase 1 obesity candidate AMG 513—bringing its obesity pipeline down to just the late-stage MariTide.
Before being scrapped, AMG 513 had been put under clinical hold, though Bradway in 2025 claimed the reason for the pause was not drug-related. The pharma in May 2024 canned another obesity asset, dubbed AMG 786, electing instead to focus its investments into MariTide.
Amgen’s late-stage operations, Bradway said on the call, are “pretty full” at the moment, particularly as the pharma pushes its two main cardiometabolic hopefuls through Phase 3 development. One of these is MariTide, which, beyond obesity, is being studied for a slew of conditions, including heart failure, type 2 diabetes and obstructive sleep apnea, according to a company presentation.
MariTide is an antibody-peptide conjugate Bradway characterized as “truly a singularity,” designed to activate GLP-1 with its peptide part and inhibit GIP via the antibody. The overall molecule is made to maximize durability inside the body and elicit a “long period of exposure” to the therapy, Jay Bradner, executive vice president of R&D, explained on the call.
Amgen has previously positioned MariTide as the leading monthly weight loss option, providing patients with a more convenient, less frequent alternative. The company is eyeing an injection schedule of 4 to 6 times a year for MariTide.
Amgen’s other late-stage cardiometabolic candidate is olpasiran, a siRNA therapy being developed to lower lipoprotein(a) levels. The asset is being tested for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) and as a primary and secondary prevention medicine for cardiovascular diseases.
In the second quarter, Amgen reported a 10% year-over-year revenue increase to $10.1 billion. The company’s top-selling product was the cholesterol-lowering drug Repatha, which surged 37% to hit $953 million. Other standout medicines include Tepezza, indicated for thyroid eye disease, jumping 14% to $576 million, and the autoimmune medicine Uplizna, which skyrocketed 90% to make $335 million.
