Review of the Biotechnology Company Amgen Inc.

Running head: BIOTECHNOLOGY COMPANY 1
Review of the Biotechnology Company Amgen Inc.
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Author Note

BIOTECHNOLOGY COMPANY 2
Part A
As one of the leading biotechnology companies in the world, Amgen Inc. is one of the
top contenders in using cutting-edge technology and science to develop medicines for several
serious illnesses. The biotechnology company focuses on six therapeutic areas, including
inflammation, nephrology, neuroscience, bone health, oncology and cardiovascular disease,
and the company has its presence in over 100 countries. The company was founded in the
year 1980 and is currently running as an established and mature biotechnology company.
From the quarterly and full-year financial reports published in 2019, it is indicated
that the company is acting sensibly in deciding the market price for their drugs and not
targeting high price/high-value disease indications. However, the generic and biosimilar
competitions against some select products have negatively influenced the total revenue
accumulation by the company, which decreased by 2 per cent in the year 2019, along with the
decline of 2 per cent in the global product sales. Working capital is an effective indicator of
whether a company might be soon hitting downtrend in business. The company’s free cash
flow in the year 2018 was about $10.6 billion, which decreased to $8.5 billion in the year
2019 (Amgen, Inc., 2020). This might be indicative of potential downtrend that the company
might be facing despite the increase in the global sales for units of some important drugs
including Nplate, Prolia, Repatha and Parsabiv (Özdemir & Patrinos, 2017).
Analysing the revenue patterns and other aspects from the financial report, it is
understood that the company may observe a similar pattern of vicissitudes in their revenue
trajectory curve as Gilead’s Harvoni (Pagliarulo, 2018). However, the company has a
stronger history in adopting better management strategies, which can essentially help them to
prevent such downfall. The company is believed to develop platform biotechnology with the
potential of developing multiple indications instead of targeting one-off hit.