Intellectual Property and Barriers to Entry for Amgen Inc. Analysis

This report provides an analysis of Amgen Inc.'s intellectual property position and the barriers to entry within the biotechnology industry. The report begins with an evaluation of Amgen Inc.'s intellectual property, emphasizing the role of patents in protecting its products like Aimovig, Parsabiv, and Repatha. It highlights how the company's Chairman, Robert Bradway, has ensured the protection of key products through patents. The analysis then moves to the evaluation of barriers to entry, discussing the challenges faced by new competitors due to the complexity of biologics and the existing regulatory environment. The report notes that while biosimilars have presented some entry challenges, Amgen has managed to maintain its strong market position. The conclusion emphasizes how Amgen's technology, drug complexity, and patent portfolio have allowed it to thrive in the competitive biopharmaceutical market.

Running head: INTELLECTUAL PROPERTIES AND BARRIERS TO ENTRY
Intellectual Property and Barriers to Entry: Amgen Inc.
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Author’s Note:

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INTELLECTUAL PROPERTIES AND BARRIERS TO ENTRY
1. Evaluation of Intellectual Property Position of Amgen Inc.
Amgen Inc. is a multinational biopharmaceutical organization in America that provides
various products of biotechnology. They have been doing business for several years and have
been providing health care business on the basis of recombinant DNA technologies. Apart from
providing major advantages to the customers, they are also focusing on their maintenance of
intellectual properties (Amgen Inc. 2020). Since, they are dealing with biotechnology products,
they have involved patents as the main intellectual property in their business. Being the patent
owner, Amgen Inc. has got the exclusive right for preventing as well as stopping others from
commercial exploitation of the patented inventions (Drahos, 2016).
The Chairman, Robert Bradway has ensured that the chief products like Aimovig,
Parsabiv, Repatha, Epogen, Xgeva, Vectibix and many more are patented and could not be used
by any other organization under any circumstance. As a result, the position of intellectual
property of Amgen Inc. is extremely high as compared to other American biotechnology
companies (Sherwood, 2019). Moreover, they are also recruiting jobs for intellectual property in
the company with better experience in work.
2. Evaluation of Barriers to Entry of Amgen Inc.
Barriers to entry refers to the existence of the higher startup costs or any other obstacle,
which can prevent the new competitors from easily getting into the industry or business area
(Ncube et al., 2016). Amgen Inc., being the leading biotechnology company in the US market,
does not face high competition from the new competitors. According to a new act, there is a high
complexity of biologics required new guidelines to demonstrate efficacy and safety for the
biosimilar products from same organization (Biosimilars. 2018). The first entrant was being

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launched in the year of 2015 as Zarixo of Sandoz, which was an entry barrier for Neupogen of
Amgen. However, Amgen was able to eradicate such issue and maintain their position
eventually. With technology and higher complexity of the main drugs as potential entry barriers
to the generic drug development, Amgen was able to gain better profitability in the respective
faster growing market for witnessing low competition (Hassner & Wittenberg, 2015). Hence,
these entry barriers are not highly problematic for Amgen Inc. and would not lower its position
from top under any circumstance.

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References
Amgen Inc. (2020). Accessed from https://www.amgen.com/ [Accessed on 20 March 2020].
Biosimilars. (2018). Accessed from https://www.americanpharmaceuticalreview.com/Featured-
Articles/352224-Biosimilars-Challenges-and-Barriers-to-Entering-the-U-S-Market/
[Accessed on 20 March 2020].
Drahos, P. (2016). A philosophy of intellectual property. Routledge.
Hassner, R. E., & Wittenberg, J. (2015). Barriers to Entry: Who Builds Fortified Boundaries and
Why?. International Security, 40(1), 157-190.
Ncube, P., Nkhonjera, M., Paremoer, T., & Zengeni, T. (2016). Competition, barriers to entry
and inclusive growth: Agro-processing.
Sherwood, R. M. (2019). Intellectual property and economic development. Routledge.