By Deena Beasley
April 30 (Reuters) - Amgen on Thursday reported first-quarter product sales rose 4%, helped by demand for cholesterol and rare disease medicines, and said it was moving forward with a broad development program for experimental weight-loss drug MariTide.
The California-based biotech company's adjusted earnings per share rose 5% to $5.15, beating analysts' expectations of $4.76, according to LSEG data.
Quarterly revenue rose 6% from a year earlier to $8.6 billion, matching the average
Wall Street estimate, despite lower demand for its bone disease drugs.
First-quarter product sales rose 9% by volume, while net prices and inventory levels each fell 2%, resulting in 4% quarter-over-quarter sales growth.
Earlier this week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration proposed withdrawing approval of Amgen's autoimmune disease drug Tavneos, citing a lack of proven effectiveness and what it described as false statements in the original application.
Amgen said it is engaging with the agency and has submitted a label amendment that would provide more information on liver toxicity related to the drug, which saw first-quarter sales rise 32% to $114 million.
Quarterly sales of cholesterol drug Repatha rose 34% to $876 million, beating the average analyst estimate of $835 million.
Sales of osteoporosis drug Prolia fell 34% to $727 million, missing analysts' estimates of $831 million, as patent expirations lead to increased competition.
Amgen is currently conducting a broad range of Phase 3 trials of experimental GLP-1 drug MariTide across obesity and related conditions, including heart disease and sleep apnea. It plans to begin three Phase 3 studies of the injected drug for diabetes patients this year.
For full-year 2026, Amgen slightly raised its outlook for adjusted earnings per share to between $21.70 and $23.10, from a previous forecast of $21.60 to $23.00. Its revenue estimate was bumped up to $37.1 billion to $38.5 billion, from $37 billion to $38.4 billion.
(Reporting By Deena Beasley)
