Amgen Posts 1st Quarterly Operating Profit Ever

Amgen, a Newbury Park-based biotechnology company, reported its first-ever quarterly operating profit last week, and posted second-quarter net income of $2.3 million, or 20 cents per share. Revenue, at $7.5 million, was up 195%.

For the same period last year, Amgen lost $2.0 million, or 19 cents per share, on revenue of $2.55 million.

On an operating basis, Amgen earned $1.8 million in the most recent quarter, versus a loss of $2.8 million last year.

Company officials attributed the improved showing to payments from Johnson & Johnson under a joint-venture agreement involving three Amgen pharmaceuticals: a hepatitis B vaccine, an immune-system stimulator and a red-blood cell regulator.

The payments, which will come as the products meet certain testing goals, could exceed $6 million during the fiscal year ending March 31, which would enable Amgen to break even for the year, company officials said. For fiscal 1985, Amgen lost $7.8 million on revenue of $10.1 million.

Amgen also reported that it filed “investigational new drug applications,” the first step in the U. S. Food and Drug Administration approval process, for the three products covered by the joint-venture agreement with Johnson & Johnson. Testing of the products on humans will begin soon, the company said.