Amgen Tries Some Positive Data Ahead of Earnings (AMGN)

Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ: AMGN) has announced the results of its biomarker analysis in new data that will be presented on Saturday, January 26th at the 2008 American Society of Clinical Oncology Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium.  This indicated that the efficacy of Vectibix monotherapy is confined to patients with non-mutated KRAS tumors in metastatic colorectal cancer patients who have failed all other chemo treatments.

In patients who had non-mutated KRAS tumors, its Vectibix significantly increased progression-free survival.  It also had a positive impact on quality of life and disease-related symptoms when the results were compared to the best supportive care alone.

Amgen is set to report earnings after the close on Thursday and analysts are looking for $0.97 EPS on revenues of $3.54 Billion.  It appears that First Call has fiscal Dec-2008 earnings pegged at $4.37 EPS on almost $14.5 Billion in revenues.  If analysts are somehow shocked that 2008 or 2009 guidance comes down or is noted as "at legislative risk" then we will be at a loss of what to say.  Its entire renal care drug line has been under attack for long enough that the real numbers are difficult to quantify. 

If any biotech company needs to go make a diversification acquisition into a new arena in biotech for entirely different treatments, that would be Amgen.

Jon C. Ogg
January 24, 2008