Amgen stock jumped Friday after the biotech behemoth broadly topped Wall Street's second-quarter views, but investors remain zeroed in on the takeover of Horizon Therapeutics.
The Federal Trade Commission is working to block the roughly $28 billion transaction. The agency says Amgen could use its weight to pressure insurance companies and pharmacy benefit managers into favoring Horizon's two biggest products, thyroid eye disease treatment Tepezza and gout treatment Krystexxa.
But Amgen Chief Executive Robert Bradway says the companies still expect the deal to close, as expected, in December.
"Simply put, there are no competitive overlaps and no incentives to bundle our drugs with theirs," he said on the company's conference call. "We look forward to making our case in court in September and I am confident, rather, that we will prevail."
On today's stock market, Amgen stock advanced 5.6% to close at 243.28.
Amgen Stock: Sales, Earnings Beat
Overall, Amgen beat second-quarter expectations. Sales jumped 6% to $6.99 billion as adjusted profit increased 8% to $5 per share. Amgen stock analysts expected $6.66 billion in sales, according to FactSet. They also predicted adjusted earnings of $4.49 per share.
The best growth came from Blincyto, Evenity and Repatha. Blincyto, a cancer drug, generated $206 million in sales, surging 48% year over year. Revenue from Evenity, an osteoporosis treatment, and migraine treatment Repatha were $281 million and $424 million, respectively. Evenity sales popped 47% and Repatha sales jumped 30%.
Sales of Amgen's biggest drug, inflammatory medicine Enbrel, inched up 2% to $1.07 billion.
For the year, Amgen predicted adjusted earnings of $17.80-$18.80 per share and $26.6 billion to $27.4 billion in sales. The outlook excludes any impact from Horizon.
Amgen stock analysts projected income of $17.73 per share and $27.02 billion in sales.
Amgen Provides Oncology Updates
The company also unveiled promising results for two treatments in lung cancer and advanced colon cancer.
The company tested a drug called tarlatamab in patients with small cell lung cancer. Amgen will unveil the full results at an upcoming medical conference, but says the overall response rate in its most recent study "substantially exceeded" the 23% rate seen in Phase 1 testing.
Further, Amgen said a combination of its drugs Lumakras and Vectibix lengthened the amount of time patients with advanced colon cancer lived without the disease progressing.
The news for Lumakras and Vectibix is "a good-to-have and adds validation to the franchise as we note the market opportunity in this setting is small," RBC Capital Markets analyst Brian Abrahams said in a note to clients.
However, offsetting that, Amgen said it's stopping enrollment for a combination of Lumakras and Merck's Keytruda in patients with non-small cell lung cancer.
"Management noted (via email) that they explored a variety of avenues with this combination and were unable to find a suitable benefit/risk with any of the dosing regimens tested," Mizuho Securities analyst Salim Syed said in his note to clients.
He also noted Lumakras sales were flat during the quarter and missed expectations at $77 million. Amgen says Lumakras saw a 20% bump in volume, but also experienced lower selling price and inventory struggles.
Follow Allison Gatlin on Twitter at @IBD_AGatlin.
