Amgen hurt by penny pinching at pharmacies
4:24 PM Fri, Apr 24, 2009 | Permalink
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By Benjamin Gedan Drugmaker Amgen reported an 8-percent drop in sales in the first quarter of the year, blaming the performance on penny-pinching at pharmacy counters and decreased doctors visits. Amgen operates one of the world's largest biomanufacturing plants in West Greenwich, where it produces the drug Enbrel. Sales of Enbrel, used to treat immune and inflammatory disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis, had remained relatively strong in recent years compared to Amgen's anemia drugs, Aranesp and Epogen. But in the first three months of the year, Enbrel sales plummeted by 20 percent. Enbrel brought in $758 million compared to $951 million in the same period in 2008, the result of "unfavorable changes in wholesaler inventory and to a lesser extent a decline in demand," Amgen said in a statement. Amgen spokesman Larry Bernard was not immediately available for comment on Friday. In all, Amgen took in $3.3 billion in the first quarter, compared to $3.6 billion in the same period in 2008. Its net income fell 7 percent to $1.02 billion compared to $1.1 billion a year ago. In a conference call with analysts, Amgen's chief executive officer, Kevin Sharer, blamed the economic downturn. "The biopharmaceutical industry is not exempt from these challenges," Sharer said, according to Bloomberg. "In America, patients are postponing doctors' visits and are not always taking medicine on the prescribed schedule." Mounting job losses have left millions of Americans without health insurance. Many patients who have retained coverage, Sharer said, can no longer afford insurance co-payments for medicine. Steep declines in sales of Amgen's anemia drugs led the company to lay off 300 Rhode Island-based employees and mothball one of its two Rhode Island plants in 2007, the same year that Sharer visited Providence and praised Kimball Hall, the company's general manager for Rhode Island operations, for running "the best factory in the Amgen system." Alexion Pharmaceuticals, the state's second-largest drugmaker, reported $14.5 million in net income in the first quarter, up from a $4.2-million loss in the same period in 2008. For more breaking business news, visit the Projo Biz Blog. 
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How expensive is each dosage of the medications they sell. They still made a ton of money on the medications they sell. If as stated the RI plants are the best they have why not move production of other medications from older, less effecient plants to the "Best" plant they have. The state made lots of consessions to get them to RI how about some payback in the from of JOBS for the citizens of that state. It is one of the worst in unemployment at the moment. Instead of thinking about just your bottom line how about the people who help you achieve it for a change.
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