Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ: AMGN) on Tuesday reported third-quarter revenue of $10.4 billion, up 8% from a year earlier and ahead of the average Wall Street estimate of $10.1 billion, and raised its full-year 2026 forecast. Non-GAAP earnings per share rose 14% to $6.45, while GAAP earnings per share rose 19% to $7.08.
The quarter showed Amgen's newer medicines making up for steep losses on older brands. Six products and product groups the company calls its key growth drivers grew 27% and accounted for more than 70% of product sales, Amgen said, even as sales of bone drugs Prolia and Xgeva fell by nearly half after biosimilars, lower-cost near-copies of biologic drugs, launched worldwide.
Amgen now expects 2026 revenue of $38.9 billion to $39.7 billion, up from a previous range of $38.2 billion to $39.4 billion. It raised its non-GAAP earnings forecast to $22.90 to $23.70 per share, from $22.30 to $23.50. Analysts had expected full-year adjusted earnings of $23.02 per share on revenue of $38.9 billion.
"Amgen delivered another strong quarter as our strategy for long-term growth continued to produce results across the enterprise," Robert A. Bradway, chairman and chief executive officer, said in the earnings release.
#Repatha, Uplizna and Imdelltra Drive Amgen Third-Quarter Sales
Sales of cholesterol drug Repatha rose 37% to $1.09 billion. Osteoporosis drug Evenity grew 39% to $751 million, and asthma drug Tezspire, developed with AstraZeneca, rose 43% to $538 million. Amgen said higher patient volumes drove most of the growth in all three.
Uplizna, used to treat several rare autoimmune conditions, nearly tripled to $451 million. Lung cancer drug Imdelltra rose 128% to $406 million. Seventeen products grew sales by 10% or more in the quarter, and 17 are on track for more than $1 billion in annual sales based on third-quarter results, the company said.
Amgen, based in Thousand Oaks, California, makes medicines for heart disease, cancer, inflammatory and rare diseases and is developing treatments for obesity. It is one of the 30 companies in the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
#Biosimilars and Medicare Price Setting Weigh on Older Amgen Drugs
Prolia sales fell 45% to $632 million and Xgeva fell 47% to $288 million as multiple biosimilars launched globally, the company said. Psoriasis drug Otezla declined 18% to $481 million on lower volume and pricing.
Enbrel sales rose 5% to $611 million, helped by changes to estimated sales deductions and higher inventory. Its net selling price fell 14%, which Amgen linked to Medicare Part D price setting that took effect in 2026 under the Inflation Reduction Act.
GAAP operating margin rose 9.9 percentage points to 37.5%, helped by lower amortization costs tied to past acquisitions. Research and development spending rose 11% to $2.1 billion. Free cash flow fell to $3.7 billion from $4.2 billion, which Amgen said reflected the timing of rebates and collections a year earlier.
A sharper way to see the markets in just 5 minutes.
Same news, different lens. We cut through the noise and hand you the overlooked ideas and the deeper read the crowd misses. Join 38,000+ investors seeing the markets differently.
#Amgen's MariTide Obesity Results Not Expected Until 2027
MariTide, an experimental weight-loss injection designed to be given monthly or less often, is in a broad set of Phase 3 trials, the final stage of testing before a company seeks approval. Initial results from those trials are not expected until next year. Several drugmakers are pursuing a weight-loss market that some analysts forecast could be worth $150 billion a year within the next decade.
During the quarter, Amgen began a Phase 3 study comparing MariTide with semaglutide in people with type 2 diabetes and said it will start two more diabetes studies in the fourth quarter.
In lung cancer, Amgen said a Phase 3 study showed that adding Imdelltra to AstraZeneca's Imfinzi as first-line maintenance therapy cut the risk of death by 58% compared with Imfinzi alone. In September, U.S. regulators shortened the required monitoring time after each of the first two Imdelltra doses to 6 to 8 hours, from 22 to 24 hours.
"The strength of our commercial portfolio, combined with important clinical advances and a promising late-stage pipeline, reinforces our confidence in Amgen's ability to deliver durable growth well into the next decade," Bradway said in the release.
Amgen continues to engage the U.S. Food and Drug Administration over a request from the agency's drug center to voluntarily withdraw Tavneos, a rare disease drug, from the U.S. market. The company requested a hearing in June and said it believes the drug has a favorable benefit-risk profile. Two studies of an under-the-skin version of blood cancer drug Blincyto remain on partial clinical hold.
Amgen projected 2026 capital spending of about $2.6 billion and share buybacks of no more than $3 billion, after making no repurchases in the third quarter. Biosimilar competition, U.S. price setting, regulatory decisions and $54 billion in outstanding debt remain key risks to its outlook.