Amgen Inc.

AMGN ·Healthcare, Drug Manufacturers - General, United States

Amgen Inc. (AMGN)

Overview

Amgen is one of the world's largest independent biotechnology companies, based in Thousand Oaks, California. Founded in 1980 as one of the pioneers of the modern biotech industry, Amgen discovers, develops, manufactures, and markets human therapeutics for serious illnesses, with a portfolio concentrated in general medicine, inflammation, oncology/hematology, and rare disease. The company generated roughly $36.8 billion in total revenue in fiscal year 2025 (up about 10% year over year), employs approximately 31,500 people worldwide, and sells its products in around 100 countries. Amgen is a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq-100.

What They Do & How They Make Money

Amgen's business model is that of a traditional large-cap biopharmaceutical company: it invests heavily in research and development (about $7.3 billion in 2025) and in manufacturing infrastructure to discover, produce, and commercialize biologic and small-molecule medicines, then earns revenue primarily by selling those medicines to wholesalers, pharmacies, hospitals, and government health programs, net of substantial rebates and discounts negotiated with payers and pharmacy benefit managers. A smaller share of revenue comes from collaboration, licensing, and royalty agreements with other biopharma companies. Because many of Amgen's top products are biologics, the company has also built out a growing biosimilars business to defend and extend its manufacturing and market-access capabilities as competitors launch biosimilar versions of its (and others') best-selling drugs. Profitability depends heavily on maintaining patent and regulatory exclusivity on high-margin products, on managing the transition as legacy blockbusters face biosimilar or generic erosion, and on successfully launching new medicines — including an emerging pipeline in obesity/cardiometabolic disease (e.g., MariTide) — to replace declining sales from older franchises.

Business Segments

Amgen manages its business and reports financial results as a single operating segment — human therapeutics — rather than dividing into multiple reporting segments the way diversified industrial or financial companies do. Internally, however, management and investors track performance across major therapeutic areas and individual products:

General Medicine / Bone Health & Cardiovascular: Prolia and EVENITY (osteoporosis), Repatha (cholesterol-lowering PCSK9 inhibitor), and related primary-care products — collectively a large and fast-growing share of revenue (Repatha alone grew 36% in 2025 to about $3.0 billion).
Inflammation: Enbrel and Otezla (psoriasis/psoriatic arthritis and other inflammatory conditions) — legacy franchises facing pricing pressure (Enbrel revenue fell 33% in 2025 due to Medicare Part D redesign effects) alongside continued growth in Otezla.
Oncology/Hematology: BLINCYTO, KRYSTEXXA, XGEVA, Nplate, and other cancer- and blood-disorder-focused therapies, several of which posted double-digit growth in 2025.
Rare Disease: TEPEZZA (thyroid eye disease) and other specialty rare-disease medicines.
Biosimilars: A growing portfolio of biosimilar versions of competitor and Amgen's own reference biologics, sold globally.

In 2025, Amgen reported that 18 products achieved record annual sales, 14 products exceeded $1 billion in sales, and 13 products posted double-digit growth, underscoring a broad, diversified product base rather than dependence on a single blockbuster.

Competitors

Amgen competes across multiple therapeutic categories against other large biopharmaceutical companies as well as biosimilar and generic manufacturers:

Large-cap biopharma peers: AbbVie, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Merck, Eli Lilly, Novartis, Regeneron, Sanofi, and Biogen compete directly in inflammation, oncology, cardiometabolic, and rare-disease markets.
Cardiometabolic/obesity: Eli Lilly (tirzepatide/Mounjaro-Zepbound) and Novo Nordisk (semaglutide/Ozempic-Wegovy) are increasingly relevant competitors as Amgen advances its own obesity pipeline candidate MariTide, and Repatha competes with other lipid-lowering therapies from Novartis and Regeneron/Sanofi.
Inflammation/immunology: AbbVie's Humira/Skyrizi/Rinvoq franchise, Johnson & Johnson's Stelara/Tremfya, and Novartis compete with Enbrel and Otezla.
Biosimilar erosion: Amgen's own top sellers (Prolia, Enbrel) face biosimilar competitors from firms such as Sandoz, Celltrion, Samsung Bioepis, Teva, and Fresenius Kabi, while Amgen itself competes as a biosimilar maker against originator products from companies like Regeneron and Roche.

Competitive Position

Amgen's competitive advantages rest on decades of biologics manufacturing expertise, a broad and diversified product portfolio that reduces reliance on any single drug, deep relationships with payers and providers, and a large-scale global commercial and regulatory infrastructure that is difficult and costly for smaller biotechs to replicate. Its long operating history gives it a reputation for reliable supply and quality control in complex biologic manufacturing, and its balance sheet supports continued heavy R&D investment and selective M&A (such as its 2023 acquisition of Horizon Therapeutics, which brought TEPEZZA and other rare-disease assets into the portfolio).

The primary risks are patent cliffs and biosimilar/generic erosion on legacy blockbusters (Enbrel, Prolia, and eventually Repatha and Otezla), U.S. drug-pricing reform under the Inflation Reduction Act (which has already triggered a $1.2 billion impairment on Otezla and subjects other products to government price negotiation), and pipeline execution risk in the increasingly crowded and commercially critical obesity/cardiometabolic space, where Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk currently dominate. Amgen's ability to sustain growth depends on successfully offsetting these headwinds with newer launches, biosimilar contributions, and pipeline candidates like MariTide.