Epogen and Neupogen Sales Drive Amgen Growth

Amgen earnings rose 18% during the fourth quarter, capping a year of record growth for the Thousand Oaks biotech company and beating Wall Street’s expectations by a penny a share.

Amgen reported that it earned $282 million, or 26 cents per share, up from $239 million, or 22 cents per share, during the fourth quarter of 1998.

Sales increased 22% during the quarter to $847 million.

On the year, Amgen’s earnings rose 27% to $1.1 billion or $1.02 per share, from $863 million or 82 cents per share, largely on increased sales of its bread-and-butter drugs, Epogen and Neupogen. Revenue was $3.04 billion, up 21% from $2.51 billion for all of 1998.

Sales of Epogen, used to stimulate red-blood-cell production in chemotherapy and kidney dialysis patients, rose 27% to $1.7 billion. Sales of Neupogen, which boosts production of white blood cells, rose 13% to $1.2 billion.

“It was an extraordinary year for Amgen and our shareholders,” said Gordon Binder, chairman and chief executive. “Overstocking by wholesalers worried about potential Y2K problems accounted for 2 cents per share of the full year’s earnings.”