Washington Editor

Amgen Inc. said it will pay Roche Holding AG $137.5 million to gain control over European assets and business related to two white-cell boosters that are sold in the U.S. under the names Neupogen and Neulasta.

Rights in the European Union, Switzerland and Norway to filgrastim (Neupogen; Granulokine in Europe), and a longer-lasting version of the drug known as pegfilgrastim (Neulasta) are being sold to Thousand Oaks, Calif.-based Amgen.

Roche had licensed European rights to the drugs from Amgen, which already has all rights in the U.S.

This move is necessary as part of a merger between Roche's Japanese subsidiary and Chugai Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., a Tokyo-based company that has a competing product.

"The headline for us is that we are growing our business in Europe," Jeff Richardson, a spokesman for Amgen, told BioWorld Today. "For a long time we only had one product on the market in Europe. Now we have Neupogen and Aranesp and, hopefully soon, Kineret and Neulasta."

Neulasta won regulatory approval in the U.S. in February, and subsequently entered the market April 1. Richardson said Amgen is awaiting regulatory approval in Europe.

Amgen does not intend to seek a partner to replace Roche, which will retain rights to both products in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Roche's motivation for selling is not unlike the decision made last week by Amgen and Immunex Corp., the Seattle-based company being acquired by Amgen in a $16 billion deal set to close in June. The two West Coast companies on Friday said they will sell Immunex's Leukine to Schering AG, of Berlin, for $108 million. Leukine (sargramostim) is similar to Neupogen. (See BioWorld Today, May 6, 2002.)

Mark Schoenebaum, a biotech analyst with CIBC World Market Corp. in New York, told BioWorld Today that he doesn't expect the deal with Roche to have any impact on the acquisition of Immunex.

Rather, he characterized the purchase as a "wise" decision. "It fits in perfectly with their franchise areas of treating the side effects associated with chemotherapy. I think this enhances Amgen's presence outside the U.S., which is really one of their keys for driving growth in future years."

He added that the price seems fair.

"We don't have good numbers on what the sales are in Europe, but it is reasonable to think Amgen would get a good deal on this because Roche had to divest the product because of the merger," Schoenebaum said. "And Amgen is the logical choice since it is their creation."

Filgrastim and pegfilgrastim are white-cell-boosting therapeutics that are used to decrease the incidence of neutropenia, which can lead to patients contracting potentially life-threatening infections following chemotherapy.

Amgen reported $1.3 billion in worldwide sales of Neupogen last year, a 10 percent increase over sales in 2000, but did not break down the sales by country. (See BioWorld Today, Jan. 25, 2002.)

Meanwhile, the Street predicts U.S. sales of Neulasta will reach $2 billion by 2005. (See BioWorld Today, Feb. 4, 2002.)

Amgen's stock (NASDAQ:AMGN) closed Wednesday at $49.15, up $2.61.