Amgen Profit Up 23% as Sales of Key Drugs Grow

Citing increased sales of its two key drugs, Amgen Inc. reported 23% higher earnings in the third quarter.

Amgen’s net income was $179 million, or 64 cents a share, up from $146 million, or 52 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenues for the Thousand Oaks company increased 15%, to $567 million from $493 million.

The profit was 5 cents higher than the estimate of Wall Street analysts, but 3 cents of that was due to an unexpected tax break, officials said.

Bear Stearns & Co. analyst David Molowa said there was some bad news about a platelet-growing drug called MGDF that Amgen is testing on humans. But he said the drug still looks promising for treating some diseases.

“The product’s not dead,” Molowa said.

Sales of Epogen, which increases red blood cell production in patients with kidney failure, were up 19% at $274 million, Amgen said. Sales of Neupogen, which promotes white blood cell growth and is used by chemotherapy patients, rose 12% to $259 million.

For the nine months, Amgen earned $502 million, or $1.78 per share, on revenue of $1.65 billion. This compares with $392 million, or $1.40 per share, on revenue of $1.43 billion for the first nine months of 1995.