Amgen’s profit rises less than 1%

Beleaguered biotech giant Amgen Inc. said Thursday that it eked out a profit of less than 1% during the fourth quarter as sales of the company’s top-selling anemia treatments continued to drop.

The Thousand Oaks-based firm’s profit benefited from substantial cost cutting in recent months although questions remain about the company’s financial outlook for next year and beyond.

Amgen reported $3.7 billion in revenue in the fourth quarter, down from $3.8 billion a year earlier. Net income was $835 million, up from $833 million.

For the year, Amgen had revenue of $14.77 billion, up from $14.27 billion the previous year. Profit was $3.2 billion in the fiscal year, up from $2.95 billion last year.

Michael Aberman, a biotech analyst at Credit Suisse Group, said “while the company is likely to see more pressure [on profit] next year, the stock has priced in a lot of the risks so far.”

Aberman has an “outperform” rating on the stock.

Amgen continued to feel the effects of recent scrutiny of its top-selling anemia drugs Aranesp and Epogen. Federal regulators and doctors are looking into concerns that they increase the risk of death and promote growth of tumors in cancer patients.

U.S. sales of Aranesp dropped 39% to $462 million in the fourth quarter, while revenue from Epogen fell 3% to $638 million. Last summer the company cut nearly 2,600 jobs, or about 14% of its workforce, on sales pressures around the drugs.

Separately, Amgen said Thursday that research on denosumab, one of its most important drugs under development, showed positive results for the treatment of osteoporosis in a large clinical trial.

The one-year study showed that bone mineral density of trial participants on the drugs improved 40% more compared with a commonly used osteoporosis drug, Fosamax.

Although the results are impressive, some Wall Street analysts have raised concern that the drug’s positive data in the trial may not be enough to persuade doctors to switch patients from cheaper generic options when the drug becomes available as early as 2010.

Dr. Roger M. Perlmutter, executive vice president of research and development at Amgen, said that the benefits of the drug were becoming clear and that the company expected it to be on the market as early as 2009.

“These trial results exceeded my expectations,” Perlmutter said.

Amgen rose $1.28, or 2.8%, to $47.40 in after-hours trading following the release of the company’s earnings. Earlier, the stock jumped $1.37, or 3.1%, to close at $46.12.

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daniel.costello@latimes.com