Amgen Reports a Solid Turnaround in Quarter

Amgen Inc., a rapidly growing biotechnology concern based in Thousand Oaks, reported a profit of $71.6 million in the second quarter, contrasted with a year-earlier loss of $48.4 million.

The loss resulted from a one-time pretax charge of $129.1 million that Amgen took after it lost an arbitration case. Amgen was found to have interfered in Johnson & Johnson’s bid to market a version of an anti-anemia drug called erythropoietin, a market Amgen dominates.

Excluding that charge, Amgen’s second-quarter earnings a year ago would have been $40.1 million.

Amgen’s revenue, meanwhile, soared $70% from a year earlier, to $261.3 million from $153.9 million.

The company has grown quickly on the strength of its version of erythropoietin, called Epogen, and its second biotechnology-derived drug, Neupogen, which helps fight infections in cancer chemotherapy patients.