Amgen - Big Biotech's Stock Report

Company: Amgen
Starting stock price: $70.37
Ending stock price: $46.44
Percent Change: 34%

Scoop: The world's biggest biotech suffered its toughest year to date in 2007. Safety problems [1] plagued Amgen's bestselling drugs Aranesp and Epogen, causing sales of the drugs to plummet [2]. Amgen slashed about 14 percent of its workforce [3] as part of a widespread restructuring aimed at slicing out a billion dollars in expenses. Some say that Amgen is paying for years of complacency in relying on its anemia franchise instead of being more aggressive about developing new therapies that could add to the company's revenue stream. Of the top five biggest biotechs, Amgen's is the only stock that declined significantly and remains depressed through the first quarter of 2008.

The most promising late-stage drug in Amgen's pipeline denosumab, a fully-human monoclonal antibody [4] for the treatment of bone loss. Recently, denosumab met all primary and secondary endpoints in a head-to-head trial against Fosomax. Winning approval of the drug is critical [5] for Amgen; if approved for osteoporosis and cancer patients, denosumab could achieve sales topping $2 billion a year.

Current stock price (3/25): $40.84