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 The forecast marks a shift for 40-year-old Amgen, which still relies
on the U.S. market for more than 75% of its sales, 30 years after it
won U.S. marketing approval for its first drug,
red-blood-cell-booster Epogen."China and Japan are the second and
third largest markets in our industry," Bradway said in an interview
on Monday on the sidelines of the JP Morgan healthcare conference in
San Francisco. "In the case of China, it is a rapidly growing
market. ... Japan has an aging population and we expect that will be
a growth market for us."
Amgen, based in Thousand Oaks, California, late last year acquired a
20.5% stake in Beijing-based BeiGene Ltd in a deal to expand its
presence in China.
In Japan, Amgen expects by the second quarter of this year to
dissolve its current joint venture with Astellas Pharma Inc and
begin for the first time to operate an independent marketing unit in
that country.
Bradway said the Astellas venture is a model for what Amgen aims to
do with BeiGene - "work on a basket of drugs together, then after a
period of time, the rights would return to us." Under the deal,
BeiGene can retain rights to one of Amgen's cancer products.
Bradway said Amgen drugs such as osteoporosis treatments Prolia and
Evenity as well as potent cholesterol fighter Repatha are
tailor-made for aging populations.
"Where there are therapies available to prevent disease, it makes
sense for society to identify people who are at risk," Bradway said.
"The alternative is to fix that which is broken."
Amgen, which is facing more U.S. competition for older biotechnology
drugs for which "biosimilar" versions are becoming available, needs
new sources of growth.
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Bradway said Amgen will announce its 2020 financial outlook on Jan.
30, when it presents fourth-quarter 2019 results. He said the
company is unlikely to return to its previous pattern of issuing
five-year financial plans, due in part to "a much more uncertain
environment."
In addition to biosimilar competition, pharmaceutical companies are
grappling with backlash from politicians and consumers to the
industry's practice of routinely hiking list prices, and then giving
some of that money back to health insurers in return for
preferential reimbursement terms.
For 2019, Amgen forecast that its global net sales prices would drop
by a rate in the mid-single digits.
Bradway said Amgen continues to see growth in Europe, where product
sales volumes are increasing by rates in the high-single-digits or
low-double-digits.
As in most European countries, the governments of both Japan and
China negotiate prices for pharmaceuticals paid for by
state-operated health plans.
Bradway said Amgen does not currently have any of its drugs
authorized for coverage on China's National Reimbursement Drug List,
but the company does plan to apply to have drugs like Repatha and
leukemia treatment Blincyto approved for inclusion.
(Reporting by Deena Beasley; Editing by Leslie Adler)
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