Amgen CEO Bob Bradway on Weight-Loss Drugs, Repatha, and Rare Disease Business

Amgen's Weight-Loss Drug Pipeline

• 💡 MariTide is Amgen's long-acting medicine for obesity, with potential for once-monthly, every-8-week, or even quarterly injections.
• 🎯 The drug aims to address patient persistence issues by offering less frequent dosing, crucial for maintaining weight loss.
• 📈 Amgen has shown impressive weight loss over 52 weeks and is studying long-term maintenance, emphasizing that benefit comes from being on therapy.

Rare Disease Business Performance

• 🚀 Amgen's rare disease business is a strong performer, annualizing over $5 billion with double-digit growth.
• 🧩 The acquisition of Horizon is proving successful, playing to Amgen's strengths in biologics and autoimmunity.
• 🌱 Acquired medicines are in the early stages of their lifecycle, with ongoing exploration for new disease applications.

Repatha for Cardiovascular Health

• 💖 Repatha is highlighted as a crucial drug for reducing the risk of heart attack and stroke by profoundly lowering LDL cholesterol.
• 📉 Amgen has lowered Repatha's list price twice, making it more accessible, and data shows it can further reduce risk by 36% even on optimized therapy.
• 🧠 The concept of "lower is better" for LDL cholesterol is emphasized, with some suggesting lowest is best.
• 🗣️ There's a need to educate patients, prescribers, and payers about Repatha's benefits, as heart attacks and strokes are major causes of mortality.

Amgen's Strategic Advantages

• 🧩 Amgen possesses a strong mosaic of consistent assets with no immediate patent cliff concerns.
• 📈 Several drugs, currently valued at billions, have the potential for significant growth, potentially reaching $20 billion.
• 🌟 Repatha's growth is driven by data demonstrating its efficacy in preventing heart attacks and strokes.