Lower Drug Sales to Hurt Amgen Profit

The beleaguered biotech field suffered another blow Wednesday when industry leader Amgen Inc. forecast lower than expected first-quarter earnings.

The Thousand Oaks-based firm said an unexpected slowdown in sales of its white blood cell stimulating drug Neupogen will mean first-quarter earnings 10% to 15% under estimates. Wall Street had expected 60 cents a share.

Amgen’s finance chief, Lowell Sears, attributed the Neupogen slowdown partly to drug wholesalers’ desire to keep lower inventories of all sorts of products. Sears said a seasonal drop in chemotherapy treatment also hurt sales of the drug, which is used to treat cancer and other ailments.

But he also said it is unlikely that Amgen will make up the first-quarter shortfall in Neupogen sales later in the year.

The news came after the stock market closed. In NASDAQ trading, Amgen stock had rallied $2.75 to $46.25 for the day. But in after-hours trades, the shares plummeted as much as $9 to the $37 range.