Amgen second quarter profit dips, sales rise 20%
By Deena Beasley
Aug 6 (Reuters) -Amgen AMGN.O on Tuesday said its second-quarter profit slipped 1% as higher expenses offset a 20% increase in revenue driven by the biotechnology company's October acquisition of rare disease drugmaker Horizon Therapeutics.
Amgen reported adjusted earnings of $4.97 per share, which was just short of the average analyst estimate of $5.00, according to LSEG data.
Quarterly revenue of $8.39 billion was slightly ahead of the $8.37 billion forecast by analysts.
Sales of cholesterol drug Repatha rose 25% to $532 million, while sales of older rheumatoid arthritis drug Enbrel fell 15% to $902 million.
The company had "twelve products that delivered at least double-digit sales growth," Amgen Chief Financial Officer Peter Griffith said in an interview.
Second-quarter sales of Tepezza, Horizon's thyroid eye disease drug, rose 7% from a year earlier to $479 million, while gout drug Krystexxa saw sales rise 20% to $294 million.
Excluding Horizon's drugs, Amgen said product sales grew 5%.
The company said quarterly net earnings fell 46% to $1.38 per share, due to higher operating expenses, including costs related to the Horizon deal.
Investors are focused on progress with Amgen's experimental weight-loss drug MariTide. The company said it expects to have initial data from a mid-stage trial of the medicine late this year.
"We are laser focused on preparing to quickly launch a broad Phase 3 program in obesity, obesity-related conditions and diabetes," Griffith said.
Some analysts have forecast the market for new drugs for weight loss reaching $130 billion a year by the early 2030s.
For full-year 2024, Amgen raised the lower end of its revenue outlook to a range of $32.8 billion to $33.8 billion from a previous low end forecast of $32.5 billion.
Amgen also narrowed its 2024 adjusted earnings estimate and now expects a profit of $19.10 to $20.10 per share, compared with its previous view of $19.00 to $20.20.
Analysts have forecast 2024 earnings per share of $19.51 on revenue of $33.1 billion.
Reporting By Deena Beasley in Los Angeles
Editing by Bill Berkrot
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