Amgen Inc.

Type Public (NASDAQ: AMGN)
Founded 1980
Headquarters Thousand Oaks, California
Key people Kevin W. Sharer, President & CEO
Industry Biotechnology
Products Epogen, Aranesp, Kineret, Enbrel, Neulasta, Neupogen, and Sensipar / Mimpara
Revenue $12.430 Billion USD (2005)
Net income $3.674 Billion USD (2005)
Employees 16,400 (2005)

Website http://www.amgen.com/

Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ: AMGN, SEHK: 4332) is an international biotechnology company headquartered in Thousand Oaks, California. Amgen is the largest independent biotech firm, with approx. 15,000 staff members in 2005. Its products include EPOGEN, ARANESP, ENBREL, Kineret, Neulasta, NEUPOGEN, and Sensipar / Mimpara. EPOGEN and NEUPOGEN (the company's first products on the market) were the two most successful biopharmaceutical products at the time of their respective releases.

BusinessWeek (as cited in "References") ranked Amgen fourth on the S&P 500 for being the most "future-oriented" of those five hundred corporations.[1] BusinessWeek ostensibly calculated the ratio of research and development spending, combined with capital spending, to total outlays; Amgen had the fourth highest ratio, at 506:1000. Amgen is the largest employer in Thousand Oaks and second only to the United States Navy in terms of number of people employed in Ventura County.

Amgen is also a member of the Pennsylvania Bio commerce organization.[2]


History
AMGen Corporate Logo, 1983




The word AMGen is a portmanteau of the company's original name, Applied Molecular Genetics, which became the official name of the company in 1983
(three years after incorporation and coincident with its initial public offering).

The company's first chief executive officer, from 1980, was George B. Rathmann, followed by Gordon M. Binder in 1988, followed by Kevin W. Sharer in 2000. The company has made at least five major corporate acquisitions.


Acquisition History
1994 - Synergen, Inc.
2000 - Kinetix Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
2002 - Immunex Corporation
2004 - Tularik, Inc.
2005 - Abgenix, Inc.
2006 - Avidia, Inc.

Amgen GmbH Contact Information
Amgen GmbH
Hanauer Strasse 1
80992 Munich, Germany
Tel. +49-89-14-90-96-0
Fax +49-89-14-90-96-2000
Type: Subsidiary
On the web: http://www.amgen.de


Amgen GmbH speaks the language of biotech geeks, only with a German accent. Amgen GmbH is a German unit of US-based Amgen, the world's largest biotech company. The subsidiary was established in 1989 to help sell and distribute biotechnical therapies for the treatment of such ailments as chemotherapy side effects, chronic kidney failure, and rheumatoid arthritis. Among the group's products are Epogen and Aranesp, for the treatment of anemia in people with chronic kidney disease; Neupogen and Neulasta, to help restore white blood cell counts for cancer patients; and Enbrel, for the treatment of psoriasis and rheumatoid arthritis.

Officers:
Managing Director: Frank Mathias


Competitors:
Chiron
Genmab
Sandoz International GmbH





if Amgen can hurt abunch of sweet PD people, because of money -
they found another way that was better, they should have offered it to them

I do not trust "DRUG LORDS"...

I can't let Paula take all the credit on this one; I was at BIO, also. This was my second year, having attended when it was in Philadelphia in 2005. At that one I was asked to be part of what they call a "media tour," a panel taking live questions from the field. The topic at the 2005 media tour was "stem cells."

Although I didn't take part in the media tour this time, I did get an interview about my experience in clinical trial participation. Parts of the interview will be broadcast on NPR, but I have no idea when.

BIO is a young, fast-growing business and is cutting edge research (gene therapy, biomarkers, diagnostics, etc.) Paula and I went as representatives of the Parkinson Pipeline Project (along with Perry C. who sometimes posts here). And as Paula said, the researchers were coming up to us - wanting help or suggestions for clinical trial recruitment or information on how to include patient advocacy in their programs.

Yes, there were some extravagant events, but that is everywhere when people with big bucks get together (such as a neurosurgical society or the AMA.) But none were so big that they didn't take time to speak to the lowly patient. Why? Because the patient isn't lowly when it comes to product development. Trials must have human testing to move along the pipeline. That makes us an indespensible commodity.

Networking is what it's all about, and we did plenty of that! Mike Fox's keynote speech was perfect! I hope we can post it here soon.

Peggy

Hey peg, glad you joined us....i'd be happy to share the credit and will let you manage it too for awhile. I'm sleepy.

lots happening though, truly

paula