TRENTON, N.J. (AP) – Amgen Inc. boosted its first-quarter profit by 51 percent, thanks to surging drug sales and ongoing cost cuts designed to free up cash for an unprecedented burst of new product launches.
The huge biologic drugmaker on Tuesday beat Wall Street forecasts and raised its profit forecast for this year.
The Thousand Oaks, California, company is gradually reducing positions in research and development, administration and elsewhere.
Meanwhile, it has assembled a new sales group to market its first drug in the growing cardiovascular market, just-approved chronic heart failure treatment Corlanor.
It’s also looking to build relationships with cardiologists ahead of likely approval of a much more lucrative heart drug, Repatha, which could be approved in August. Repatha is part of a new class of pricey cholesterol drugs called PCSK9 inhibitors aimed at patients not helped enough by older statin drugs such as Lipitor.