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

To: JGoren who wrote (660)	11/23/1998 8:12:00 PM
From: steve kammerer	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1906

Do you know that Amgen has not increased the selling price of Epogen in 8 years? Doesn't seem fair to cut back reimbursement rate now. stevek

To: JGoren who wrote (660)	12/16/1998 12:53:00 PM
From: Beltropolis Boy	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1906

for what it's worth, the motley fool will purchase $25k of AMGN. an excerpt from their lengthy buy write-up. ----- Fool To Buy Amgen December 15, 1998 Amgen is the top dog in an exciting, nascent industry that holds tremendous possibility. And it has at present no meaningful competition in its existing markets. But let's end with a different slant than the one we've already taken. Amgen has the momentum that size grants, but the random nature of science and discovery makes domination of the biotech industry by any one company unlikely over long periods of time. This is fine. Why? Because it's also the nature of the healthcare industry that there can be dozens of leaders serving all different ailments, and all can be highly profitable. Consider the top 12 pharmaceutical companies, all with operating margins above 20%. You rarely (if ever) see so many mature companies in one industry all growing earnings per share by double-digits and being highly profitable, too. It's possible in pharmaceuticals and biotechs because, in the end, each drug serves a different market. The market potential for biotechs and pharmaceuticals is almost unending (as we cover in Industry Focus 1999, the Motley Fool's look at 1999 for investors, due out from www.foolmart.com in the next week). There are constantly better or new cures for thousands of ailments. We believe Amgen, with nearly $1 billion in annual cash flow, is in a strong position to capture much of this new industry's growth over the coming decades. One awesome statistic that we haven't even tossed out yet is that the company's net profit margin is over 30%! So while no company will dominate the overall biotech sector forever, in its niche we think Amgen can continue to be top dog. (And maybe Amgen can continue to be largest biotech -- but that's not the most important factor.) The Rule Breaker Portfolio will buy shares of Amgen in the next five market days. We're not alone in buying the stock. In November, Amgen announced another share repurchase plan for up to $1 billion worth of stock by the end of 1999. This follows the $1 billion repurchase plan that it recently completed. How many biotechs have a billion dollars to throw around? You can count them on one hand -- or, actually, on one or two fingers. At this size, and with 47% of its shares already owned by large institutions, Amgen probably won't be our next "rocket stock," but its long-term potential is extremely attractive (notice that we didn't say "certain"). fool.com