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Biotech / Medical : Amgen Inc. (AMGN) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JGoren who wrote (843)	10/9/1999 5:37:00 PM
From: John McDonald	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1906

By CNN FN writer Franklin Berger: Another strong stock, says Berger, is Amgen (AMGN). That company, says Berger, "is certainly a very strong focus of our search, because they have a drug called NESP, a new kind of EPO [epoetin alfa, for the treatment of anemia associated with chronic kidney failure] for people on dialysis., which makes red blood cells grow. This is necessary for patients on dialysis and something, increasingly, that oncology patients are receiving. It's a market growing past $3 billion. And it`s on its way to 30 to 40 percent growth for the next few years." "We`re also looking at some smaller companies," says Berger. One of them is Alexion Pharmaceuticals (ALXN), which is looking at the anti-inflammation pathways in heart disease. There was an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal, yesterday, about how inflammatory pathways in the body may actually induce heart attacks or make heart disease worse. Both Genentech (DNA) and Alexion are looking at unique new molecules that would affect that. These are new classes of drugs, new ways of looking at heart disease never tried before." At the moment, Berger admits, biotech stocks are a little pricy. "They are getting expensive. We completely agree with that. But at the same time we expect to see this trend to continue for several reasons. The growth we`re seeing at Amgen or Biogen, for example, rates of growth of about 25 to 35 percent, is unseen in other sectors of the market. We`re seeing very positive earnings trends, very positive revenue trends. We`re seeing the pipelines fill up, market launches of blockbuster drugs coming. Therefore the news flow is positive. Therefore, I don`t see any reason to expect a change in the positive trend." cnnfn.com