Analysis AMGN
Two Amgen drugs lost $758 million in sales. What filled the gap?
Growth across other medicines accelerated as Prolia and Xgeva declined faster. Our comparison traces the sales offset, higher forecasts and quarterly cash.
Amgen's product sales increased 8% in the third quarter even as Prolia and Xgeva lost a combined $758 million of sales. The two medicines face growing competition from biosimilars, a decline the company had already warned would accelerate this year.
Research by Ticker Byline shows that sales of all Amgen's other products rose about 20%, up from roughly 18% growth in Q2. Those gains more than absorbed the two drugs' losses, allowing the company to raise its annual revenue and adjusted earnings forecasts.
The rest of the portfolio is growing faster
Prolia sales fell 45% to $632 million, while Xgeva dropped 47% to $288 million. In Q2 their declines were 32% and 34%, respectively. Each comparison is with the corresponding year-earlier quarter.
Removing the two products from both years leaves $8.96 billion of quarterly product sales, versus $7.46 billion. The growth covers a wide range of medicines. Repatha added $291 million, Uplizna $296 million, Imdelltra $228 million and Evenity $210 million.
| Contribution to sales growth | Q2 2026 | Q3 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| All products except Prolia and Xgeva | +1,309 | +1,504 |
| Prolia and Xgeva combined | −543 | −758 |
| Total product-sales increase | +766 | +746 |
The stronger growth elsewhere added $195 million more than in Q2, but the two declining products lost another $215 million. Total product-sales growth therefore slowed slightly. These are reported sales dollars, including price, inventory and sales-deduction effects.
Higher earnings and a higher forecast
GAAP operating income rose to $3.71 billion from $2.53 billion. Adjusted operating income, which excludes acquisition-related costs, impairments and selected other items, increased to $4.68 billion from $4.31 billion. Lower excluded expenses explain part of the larger GAAP increase.
Amgen now expects annual revenue of $38.9 billion to $39.7 billion, versus August's $38.2 billion to $39.4 billion. Adjusted EPS is forecast at $22.90 to $23.70, up from $22.30 to $23.50.
Quarterly cash lagged the sales recovery
Free cash flow, operating cash less capital spending, fell to $3.65 billion from $4.25 billion. Amgen attributes the decline to working capital, including favorable rebate and collection timing in last year's quarter. Nine-month free cash flow nevertheless increased to $8.62 billion from $7.14 billion.
Cash ended September at $13.19 billion, while debt carrying amounts were $54.01 billion, down from $57.30 billion in June. Amgen made no program share repurchases in Q3. Its unchanged annual forecast allows up to $3 billion of repurchases.
The Amgen company profile follows the portfolio shift, earnings adjustments, cash and debt.