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

To: nnillionaire who wrote (582)	7/2/1998 11:10:00 AM
From: Harold Engstrom	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1906

You're right, Dennis. That is the definition of a pipeline, and I don't mean to sound negative about Amgen relative to other companies. In fact, Amgen is a better bet than almost all biotechs. It pipeline is poor relative to what a $16B biotech's pipeline should be, but not a poor pipeline. Leptin and their immune system drug seem like the most promising products. But that seems like pretty slim pickings and in light of promising developments at other companies it appears that Amgen will see real competition in the epogen and nupogen markets. Tough call as to what company has the best pipeline. I am invested in only a couple of biotechs and don't really want to hype what I own. But, I guess I would look at the comments of the most knowledgeable people here at SI like those who post on the VD Model Portfolio thread and see what they like and why they like it. I don't own any Ligand and only recently bought a small position in Sepracor, but both companies have what appears to be a fat pipeline and good risk/reward ratios - and both have drug discovery methodologies.

To: nnillionaire who wrote (582)	7/2/1998 7:15:00 PM
From: JohnP	Respond to of 1906

First, everyone know how seriously overweight our society is. Helping people reduce their weight in a safe manner, unlike what happened with the recent Phen-fen, Redux, pulmonary hypertension and cardiac valve associations, would be a boon to a company. Progenitor licensed to Amgen exclusive rights for the development and commercialization of products using Progenitor's leptin receptor technology. These leptin receptor products hold huge promise. This is just one example of the AMGEN pipeline. The leptin receptor also holds promise for the treatment of Type II diabetes. Infergen to treat Hepatitis C was introduced this past year, although it is likely to be a small profit center. Stemgen is expected to receive FDA approval this year. This drug may be used in combination with Neupogen to stimulate blood cell recovery in chemotherapy patients Further down the road in phase two trials is NESP a possible successor to Epogen. Lastly, a merger with J&J has been essentially written off by Wall Street, but I have seen before where a competitor buys out the competition to gain market share and products (Bill Gates are you out there?)