By Deena Beasley
(Reuters) – U.S. biotech Amgen Inc on Tuesday said its first-quarter sales and profit fell due to a 7% drop in its net drug prices and the COVID-19 pandemic, which continued to limit patient interactions with healthcare providers.
The company’s quarterly adjusted earnings per share fell 12% from a year earlier to $3.70, short of the $4.04 forecast by Wall Street analysts, as calculated by Refinitiv.
Revenue for the quarter fell 4% to $5.9 billion – also below analyst estimates of $6.26 billion. Net profit fell 8% to $2.83 per share.
For the full year, Amgen said it still expects adjusted earnings of $16.00 to $17.00 per share on revenue of $25.8 billion to $26.6 billion, but lowered its net EPS forecast to a range of $9.11 to $10.71 from a previous $12.12 to $13.17. The company said it now expects a 2021 net tax rate of 14% to 15.5% – up from a previous estimate of 11% to 12.5%. Its adjusted tax rate is now forecast at 13.5% to 14.5%, compared with the previous 13% to 14%.
Amgen shares, which closed little changed at $255.13 in regular trading, were down 2.4% at $249 after hours.
“While our business continued to be impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic particularly in the first two months of the quarter, we are encouraged by strong volume trends in many of our newer products and remain confident in the outlook for the full year,” Amgen Chief Executive Robert Bradway said in a statement.
Amgen had warned in February that it expected net selling prices for its drugs to fall by a rate in the mid-single digits this year due to increased competition, including cheaper generics and biosimilars.
First quarter sales of its rheumatoid arthritis drug Enbrel fell 20% to $924 billion, shy of analysts’ estimate of $1.1 billion.
Sales of newer migraine drug Aimovig fell 7% from a year earlier to $66 million for the quarter, well short of the $95.7 million projected by analysts. But sales of cholesterol fighter Repatha rose 25% to $286 million, beating Wall Street estimates of $251 million.
(Reporting By Deena Beasley; Editing by David Gregorio)
