Amgen is an American-based multinational biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Thousand Oaks, California. Located in the Conejo Valley, Amgen is the world's largest independent biotechnology firm. Epogen and Neupogen (the company's first products on the market) were the two most successful biopharmaceutical products at the time of their respective releases.
 

Amgen is the largest employer in Thousand Oaks and second only to the United States Navy in terms of number of people employed in Ventura County. BusinessWeek ranked Amgen first on the S&P 500 for being one of the most "future-oriented" of those five hundred corporations.BusinessWeek ostensibly calculated the ratio of research and development spending, combined with capital spending, to total outlays; Amgen had the fourth highest ratio, at 506:1000.
 

The company employs approximately 17,000 staff members. Its products include Epogen, Aranesp, Enbrel, Kineret, Neulasta, Neupogen, Sensipar/Mimpara, Nplate, Vectibix, Prolia and XGEVA. Amgen has several collaborative arrangements with Pfizer Inc, GlaxoSmithKline, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company, Kyowa Hakko Kirin, Daiichi Sankyo and Array BioPharma. It is a leading member of the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition, a coalition of over 400 companies and NGOs that promotes increased funding for US diplomatic and international development programs. In 2010, Amgen began sponsoring the Tour of California, one of only three major Union Cycliste Internationale events in the United States.

 

History

AMGen Corporate Logo, 1983 

Amgen's corporate Gulfstream V departs Fox Field, Lancaster, California 

The word AMGen is a portmanteau of the company's original name, Applied Molecular Genetics, which became the official name of the company in 1983 (three years after incorporation and coincident with its initial public offering). The company's first chief executive officer, from 1980, was George B. Rathmann, followed by Gordon M. Binder in 1988, followed by Kevin W. Sharer in 2000. The company has made at least five major corporate acquisitions.

 

Acquisition history

1994 - Synergen, Inc.

2000 - Kinetix Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

2002 - Immunex Corporation

2004 - Tularik, Inc.

2006 - Abgenix, Inc.

2006 - Avidia, Inc.

2007 - Ilypsa, Inc.

2007 - Alantos Pharmaceuticals Holdings, Inc.

2011 - BioVex Group, Inc.

2011 - Laboratório Químico Farmacêutico Bergamo Ltda.

2012 - Micromet, Inc.

2012 - Mustafa Nevzat İlaç

2012 - KAI Pharmaceuticals