Amgen’s pipeline rollout at their R&D Day on March 23 was not well received. Wall Street didn’t like it and we think they were right. In spite of saying there were no planned acquisitions, Amgen (AMGN) must have planned the Tularik (TLRK) deal well before this, and probably at the time they bought 20% last year. It’s likely the market’s reaction to R&D Day accelerated the deal, and we know Amgen can move fast when it wants to. Some cite the Tularik’s Hepatocellular CA drug that is close to market should help fill Amgen’s pipeline gap. But Hepatocellular CA is not very common in the U.S. or Western Europe, the two biggest drug markets, so this is probably no blockbuster.
