Amgen Inc. (AMGN) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

January 11, 2021

NASDAQ US Health Care Biotechnology conference_presentation 41 min

Earnings Call Speaker Segments

Cory Kasimov

analyst
#1

All right. Hello, everyone. Greetings from the virtual JPMorgan Healthcare Conference. My name is Cory Kasimov. I'm the senior large-cap biotech analyst. And it's my pleasure to introduce our next company, Amgen; and Chairman and CEO and fellow Buckeye fan, Bob Bradway. Please note that following this presentation, we will have a Q&A session right here in this same Zoom room where you are now, so you're able to also submit questions via the little blue Ask A Question button in your conference portal. So with that, Bob, thanks very much for being here with us today. Let me turn things over to you.

Robert Bradway

executive
#2

Okay, Cory. Thanks for having us. We're delighted to be back again this year. We wish all of you a happy New Year. Let me just remind you before I jump in that we have slides, and I'll try to walk you through those. I think you have to control them on your end, but let's make our way forward. Slide 2, of course, is our safe harbor statement. So my remarks today are qualified by the elements of that safe harbor statement. If you turn to Slide 3, let me just walk you through the year just passed, where despite the traumas and challenges of COVID, we were not knocked off our stride. And you can see that in the fact that we were able to advance our innovative first-in-class pipeline with positive registration-enabling data for sotorasib, our molecule directed against a specific type of mutation in cancer; and of course, tezepelumab for severe uncontrolled asthma. In addition to being able to maintain our time line on those programs, we also were able to deliver significant revenue growth through the first 3 quarters of the year. Our revenues were up 9% through the first 3 quarters, and earnings per share were up some 14%. We were able to do that in part by successfully integrating Otezla into our inflamm portfolio as well as successfully integrating our business development transactions in Asia, starting with our partnership in Japan, which has become our affiliate in that market and is off to a great start, and of course, our investment in BeiGene. In addition, we, in 2020, maintained our strategic focus on returning capital to our shareholders, and that was reflected in our dividend and buyback transactions during the course of the year. If you'll move now to Slide 4, I want to just spend a few moments talking about the growth drivers for our business, starting with sotorasib, which is again a molecule directed at a target that was thought to be undruggable until we drugged it. It is the first and only once-daily, highly tolerable KRAS G12C inhibitor. This molecule is on file now with regulators around the world. This is a program through which we demonstrated that we could move at tempo, moving from our dosing of the first human to filing the registration data in some 28 months. So certainly our fastest-ever registration-enabling program, and probably one of the fastest in the industry in the oncology area. So we're excited about this. As you know, something like 13% of patients who are diagnosed with non-small cell lung cancer have a G12C mutation. And they will, for the first time, we hope when this product is approved, have an option available to treat their disease. In other solid tumors, for example, in colorectal cancer, these mutations account for as much as 4% of the population. So we're excited about the global nature of our development effort here. We have more than 10 combinations under investigation. We expect data from that in the first half of 2021. And overall, we've some 700-plus patients enrolled in our clinical trials for this molecule across 4 continents. If you'll move with me now to Slide 5, I want to talk about asthma. Of course, the bigger the city, the more the asthma. And with the increasing global trend towards urbanization, we think that there is a significant unmet need in the asthma area, and in particular, for patients who suffer from asthma and have a low eosinophilic phenotype. No other biologic has demonstrated an effect -- benefit for these patients. And we're very encouraged about the Phase III data for tezepelumab, which show that it's efficacious and looks to be safe for patients irrespective of their eosinophilic status. So these data make us excited about the prospect of having a therapy that can help treat some 2.5 million people in the world who have severe uncontrolled asthma. There are as many as 1 million of those patients in the U.S. alone. So we're excited about the prospects of this. We expect to submit these data for review by regulators in the first half of 2021. And I would remind you that like sotorasib, this is a molecule that has Breakthrough Therapy designation from the FDA. So we now have 2 Breakthrough Therapy-designated molecules under review at FDA. And I think that speaks to the quality of innovation at Amgen. Let's move to Slide 6. And if I can channel Herman Melville here for a moment, I want to talk about the great white whale of cardiovascular disease, which is atherosclerosis. And there are obviously a couple of things that significantly contribute to the atherosclerosis problem in the world today. One of those is LDL-C, which I'll talk about in the context of Repatha. But Lp(a)is also a significant independent risk factor for atherosclerosis. People who are born with high levels of Lp(a) do not benefit from other therapies that are available to treat LDL cholesterol. This is not a group of patients who benefit from diet or from exercise. This is a group of people who, in aggregate, are 2 to 4x -- or are at 2 to 4x greater risk for heart attack and stroke. And we're excited to be advancing an innovative program that is able to meaningfully reduce the levels of Lp(a) for these patients and look forward to seeing the results when we have those at the end of the clinical program. But based on the strong validation that we have from our work at deCODE in Iceland, we think that this is another appropriate way to try to manage the risk of atherosclerosis and specifically for Lp(a) patients. If we move to Slide 7, as you're all aware, I think we're, and have been the leader for some 2 decades now, in inflammation. And this is the case of the more we look, the more we like. And this is a field that we think will benefit from the extraordinary focus on biology that occurred during the period of COVID. And so we look forward to continuing to invest in the inflammation area. We have 3 programs that are currently in mid-stage development, and let me just remind you what those are. We have AMG 592, which is an IL-2 mutein, which promotes the growth of Treg cells. And you'll perhaps be aware that Treg cells are impaired in many autoimmune diseases. And so we hope that by achieving a better balance of the Tregs and the effector T cells, that we'll be able to make a dent in some autoimmune disorders. And we're starting, of course, by looking at lupus in that regard. So we have a Phase II program for lupus that we'll be enrolling in the first half of this year. In addition, we have a molecule, AMG 570. It's also being studied in the setting of lupus, and it's a molecule that inhibits both T cells and B cells through its bispecific action on the ICOS-ligand and in the BAFF target. And then finally, I want to remind you that we have an IL-15 antibody, which is in Phase IIb development for celiac disease. We turn now to Slide 8. I want to spend a few moments on our BiTE platform. And I want to remind you that we've now treated some 3,000 patients with our BiTE molecules. So well more than any other company in the industry when it comes to bispecific therapies. We have demonstrated activity obviously in liquid tumors, where we have a product approved and a product that's demonstrated a mortality benefit in acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Building on that, we also reported efficacy data for our BCMA-targeting molecule late last year. So we've demonstrated it now in a couple of different liquid tumors, the efficacy of this platform. But very importantly, we've also demonstrated significant biologic activity now against solid tumors. And we're particularly excited about 2 of our programs: one, AMG 160 directed against PSMA. This is a half-life extended molecule. It's in dose expansion now and it seeks to address what is the #1 cancer -- #1 diagnosed cancer for men in our society, noncutaneous cancers, with more than 1 million people a year diagnosed with prostate cancer. And unfortunately, even with the great therapies that are otherwise available today, many of these patients progress over time, and we think there's a significant unmet medical need for a program like our AMG 160. Similarly, we're excited about our AMG 757 which targets DLL3, which we think remains a very promising, exciting target in cancer. This is also a half-life extended molecule. And I would remind you that as much as 13% of the 230,000-or-so patients that are diagnosed with lung cancer every year will have a form of small cell lung cancer. And there's been very little innovation approved for the benefit of these patients. So we're excited about what we've seen so far from AMG 757. We look forward to having the opportunity to share some of those data with you at the World Lung Conference and to continue to advance our clinical efforts there. If we move now to Slide 9, I think this is a case of we said what we meant and we meant what we said when we told you that we thought international expansion would be a source of important growth for Amgen. You see that through the first 9 months of the year in 2020, where our revenues outside of the U.S. grew by 10%, which in turn was driven by volume growth of some 18% in the markets outside of the U.S. In the Asia Pacific region, we crossed the $1 billion threshold for the first time. And as I mentioned earlier, we were pleased to successfully begin our own affiliate work in Japan and, of course, to enter into a successful collaboration with BeiGene. We were fortunate to have a few molecules approved in China. Our XGEVA and BLINCYTO were approved in that market; KYPROLIS is under review; and furthermore, Prolia and XGEVA both were added to the National Reimbursement Drug List in China. So we're excited to see what we can do in the way of growth following that development. If we move now to Slide 10, I want to talk about biosimilars. We continue to see biosimilars as part of the solution, not part of the problem, when it comes to health care costs around the world. Our biosimilars have been important contributors already to our growth, annualizing as they are at some $2 billion in revenues. Our MVASI share through the third quarter was about 44% in the U.S. Our KANJINTI share was about 34%. So we're doing very well in commercializing our biosimilars in the markets where we've had them approved. Delighted that we've had our fifth biosimilar, RIABNI, which is a molecule that's biosimilar to Rituxan, approved now in the U.S., where we will be launching it now. And I would remind you that we will continue to launch our 5 biosimilars in new markets this year, including AMGEVITA, our biosimilar to HUMIRA in Japan, Australia, Brazil and Canada. If we move now to the next slide, Slide 11, I want to shift the focus to the things that we expect to drive near-term growth. I've already talked about sotorasib and tezepelumab, but I want to spend a few moments now talking about Repatha, Otezla, Aimovig and EVENITY, as well as talking about things that we see coming out of the COVID crisis that we think have the potential to be long-term effects on our industry. If I start with Otezla, I would just say looking back, that acquisition was the right thing for us to do. It was the right deal for us. It's proven to be a great strategic fit. I think we've integrated it well and we're off to a very strong start. We expect that the mild to moderate psoriasis indication will be an attractive one. We look forward to working with primary care docs as well as specialists to try and help treat patients suffering from mild to moderate psoriasis once that indication is approved, which we hope will occur later this year. I would remind you that we're still launching Otezla in new countries, and we are excited by what we've seen from this established leader in the post-topical prebiologic psoriasis segment. When we acquired the asset, we told you that we thought it would be a double-digit revenue growth driver. We continue to believe that, that is the case. If we move now to Slide 13, I want to return to cardiovascular disease this time in the context of Repatha, and just remind you that 30 million people globally suffer from heart attacks and strokes and -- every year. And in the U.S. alone, we think there are 17 million patients who could benefit from Repatha to help lower their LDL cholesterol. We've demonstrated that Repatha significantly reduces the risk of heart attack and stroke. We've demonstrated that 90% of patients who are on Repatha and have established heart disease are able to achieve LDL cholesterol levels below the 70 milligrams per deciliter level, which is the established threshold for those patients. And we've established ourselves as a global leader in this area with terrific efficacy and safety data that we reported on last year, following 5 years of data. The majority of Medicare patients now have clearly affordable co-pays for this product. And fortunately, this is a product that patients can administer at home conveniently. So even with COVID lingering, it's a product that's available for patients to manage their risk of heart attack and stroke. Shifting to Slide 14. The pandemic has clearly overshadowed an epidemic. And when the first recedes, we look forward to helping make the second recede. You will be aware, no doubt, that osteoporosis is a global epidemic, and we think we have 2 products that can play an important role in addressing that: EVENITY, which is a newly approved product that promotes the formation of bone, particularly for patients after fracture. We've now launched that successfully in Japan, the U.S. and Europe. And we think that patients who are fractured and are treated with EVENITY can benefit from our antiresorptive therapy Prolia, which has a unique mechanism of action, continues to demonstrate its importance in the field with a solid year-over-year growth. If we move to Slide 15, I want to just talk about Aimovig. And unfortunately, I'm sure all of you know someone or even have someone in your life who suffers from migraine. It is a debilitating neurologic disease. And fortunately, there are therapies like Aimovig which can make a difference for these patients. We think there are some 4 million migraine patients in the U.S. alone who are eligible for the kind of preventive anti-CGRP therapy that Aimovig represents. This population is only 15% penetrated so far. We've achieved broad coverage from payers for these patients. We have 5-year data that demonstrates durable safety and efficacy, so we look forward to continuing to build awareness of the role that this product can play for patients. The first 15 slides that I just went through described what we do. This slide gives you a sense for how we do it. And I would just say that this is not at the expense of what we do but to the benefit of what we do. So we have a strong ESG track record and an ambitious agenda. In some ways, I think we've held our light under a bushel for the last few years, but I want to just point out that we met and exceeded the targets that we established for ourselves beginning in 2013. We had a set of targets that established for the year 2020. We met or exceeded those. And we announced today that we are launching a new set of long-term targets, which will have us achieve carbon neutrality by 2027, have us reducing water consumption by some 40% and waste by some 75%, again, through the end of 2027. We've also made significant progress inside our company and we hope, over time, outside our company as well in promoting diversity and inclusion. Proud to be a founding member of the OneTen Coalition, which is a group that aims to hire 1 million Black Americans over the next 10 years. We're also committed in making progress and improving diversity in our clinical trials. I would also just quickly add that when it comes to access to medicine, nothing is more frustrating than having innovative medicines that can make a difference for patients and only to find that they can't afford them. So for patients that were low-income and had no insurance, couldn't afford their medicines, we provided some $1.5 billion worth of therapies in 2020. We'll continue to do that in 2021 as well. In addition, reflecting our commitment to STEM education, we've been a major supporter of STEM education for high school and college students. And we've reached something like 1 million high school students through our in-classroom teaching efforts and a further 5 million through the virtual biology teaching that we've supported. So turning to my final slide on Page 17 for the year. Again, we expect to deliver long-term volume-driven growth and to deliver shareholder value for you, our shareowners. We're accelerating our launch preparations for our 2 new molecules, which again, I would remind you are being reviewed under Breakthrough Therapy designations. We think we have a strong pipeline of innovative products coming behind that. We think we have a strong roster of recently long [indiscernible] double-digit growth revenues over the next several years. We maintain a balance sheet that we think gives us strategic flexibility. We will continue to return capital to our shareholders in the form of dividends and buybacks. And I would remind you that we increased the dividend again by 10% in 2021 already. And finally, I would just note that we are driving and celebrating the ambitious ESG agenda that we have for our enterprise as well. So with that, Cory, why don't we open it up for questions, and I'll invite my colleagues to take their microphones off mute in case any of the questions are better directed to them. And I would just, for the benefit of the audience, point out that we have our Head of Investor Relations, Arvind Sood; our CFO, Peter Griffith; our Head of R&D, David Reese; and our Head of Commercial Operations, Murdo Gordon, joining me for Q&A.

Cory Kasimov

analyst
#3

Perfect. Thank you, Bob. [Operator Instructions] We have some in there, but let me get started. It appears that Amgen's key focus, at least for product development, has narrowed to 3 core therapeutic areas: oncology, cardiovascular disease and inflammation. Can you just kind of put that into context with respect to capital allocation and how you look at the future growth of the company?

Robert Bradway

executive
#4

Cory, what I would say is that our discovery research efforts are focused in those 3 areas, as you mentioned. So we are focused. Those are the areas where we see the richest opportunities right now. But when it comes to strategy and allocating capital, we have very strong franchises in 3 incremental areas. Let me just remind you that we've been a leader in kidney disease now for several decades. So while we don't have a concentrated effort in discovery research, we have a very strong presence and history in that field, so we continue to look for opportunities there. We continue to look for opportunities in bone health that we think the degree of unmet medical need there is more limited, particularly after the addition of EVENITY to our Prolia franchise. And then finally, in neuroscience, Cory, we have a strong offering in the form of Aimovig, and we'll continue to look for opportunities to build on that. And over time, I expect that as we see more promising early targets in neuroscience, that's an area that we can revisit.

Cory Kasimov

analyst
#5

Okay. And then to work in an investor question with a follow-up on this is, can you discuss the potential for business development initiatives for your core therapeutic areas with respect to either licensing or M&A? And does the size of the types of deals you would pursue change over time?

Robert Bradway

executive
#6

Well, Cory, we have a world-class business development effort. We are focused on finding opportunities to invest in our business internally and externally, so we recognize there's great innovation around the world now in the biologic biotech area. So we're canvassing opportunities that we think are a good fit strategically. We have maintained a strong balance sheet so that we can do deals at a variety of different sizes. I'd remind you that a little over a year ago now, we committed about a total of $19 billion externally. Of course, Otezla was the biggest piece of that, but it's a reflection that we are prepared to invest in attractive opportunities in our space. So attractive for us means that we think we can add value above and beyond the owners of the asset at the present time. If it is an acquisition and implies a premium, again, that means we have to be able to add value above and beyond the premium that we pay for the asset. We look at these things from a cash flow -- on a cash flow basis. And so we want to see the pathway that we think enables our shareholders to earn a return greater than our cost of capital. So we're disciplined. As my CFO, Peter, who's on the call, likes to remind me, we're patient. We have deep pockets but short arms, and we'll dig in for the right opportunities as we have over the past 2 years. But we don't want to chase valuations to a point where our shareholders lose and somebody else's shareholders win.

Cory Kasimov

analyst
#7

Okay, makes sense. And then, Bob, you mentioned in your presentation, you were talking about access and access to medicines. I'm always curious to get your evolving political views, and it's obviously timely right now. So what's your outlook on health care reform or the potential for reform under a new administration in the context of be it Medicare reimbursement, drug pricing, things along those lines?

Robert Bradway

executive
#8

Well, Cory, I would reiterate something I said publicly the other day, which is that Amgen looks forward to working with the new administration and elected officials on both sides of the aisle: first, to try to bring an end to this pandemic; but second, to try to update rules and regulations and laws that are outdated and to make the changes necessary to see that our citizens have access to the innovative medicines that can make a difference in their life. And so we want to do that while preserving this ecosystem that we think is so important and so special, and it's the ecosystem that has enabled us in less than 12 months to come up with a raft of innovative ways of trying to break the back of this pandemic. So we're looking forward to working with the new administration, newly elected officials. We think there are some things that need to be changed. I think there are some things that we can do differently as an industry. But we need help from Congress to change the appropriate rules and laws to enable us to do that.

Cory Kasimov

analyst
#9

Okay. And next one here I have, probably for both David and Murdo, but take it however you want it. And it's transitioning to the pipeline. What gives you confidence in the commercial potential for late-stage products such as sotorasib and tezepelumab, given the competitive markets they're entering?

David Reese

executive
#10

Yes. Perhaps I'll start and then ask Murdo to comment. First of all, these are both first-in-class molecules that were founded on Amgen's science. If we start with sotorasib, 40-year quest to develop G12C inhibitors. In a couple of weeks, we will have the pivotal Phase II data that will be presented at the World Congress on Lung Cancer. That will be from an updated data cut. We're extremely pleased with the profile of that molecule, both in terms of efficacy and safety. We've got a very broad-based development program with 10 combination studies or cohorts now enrolling, data coming over the course of this year, that can potentially cover a range of malignancies also beyond lung cancer. And we're looking for ways to move in earlier lines of therapies in target indications. So I couldn't be happier with the overall positioning for that molecule. Likewise with tezepelumab, this was really founded on Amgen's science. I happen to be the head of early development when that went into the clinic from Phase I through the Phase III data. I think we've got a profile that suggests this is going to be an incredibly important medicine in asthma, given the clinical outcomes in patients with both high eosinophil forms of the disease as well as those with low eosinophil forms. For the latter, we've got Breakthrough Therapy designation from the FDA, and there's very large unmet medical need. So I think quite an opportunity with both of these molecules and couldn't be happier with our position. Murdo, you may want to add a few words to that.

Murdo Gordon

executive
#11

Yes. Thanks, Dave. I'll pick up where you left off. A huge unmet medical need, 13% in non-small cell lung cancer patients, RG -- KRAS G12C positive mutational status. And their -- if they progress through their first-line therapy, they really don't have effective second-line options. And we're excited about how fast Dave's organization has moved to continue to keep us in the lead in this race. After 40 years of not being able to drug KRAS G12C, it's a phenomenal opportunity for us to be in. Our medical teams are out making sure that providers and patients are working to make sure that they understand their KRAS G12C status so that there's a pool of eligible patients upon approval of the product. The regulators clearly have committed to moving quickly with the Breakthrough designation and real-time oncology review. So unique opportunity, one we don't take lightly. It's a high degree of responsibility, and we will work very, very swiftly to make sure as many patients benefit from this as possible. I'm excited about the broader potential, and we'll see how the data flow for other indications and perhaps even earlier lines of treatment, either as monotherapy or combination therapy, but just really excited to be a part of that. And then pivoting into asthma, there's over 1 million patients in the U.S. alone, over 2.5 million in the kind of the G12 urbanized countries that suffer from uncontrolled severe asthma. And we have a huge opportunity with tezepelumab to positively impact those patients and to reduce those acute exacerbations. And with our partners at AZ, we are well positioned there. Again, first-in-class, first-to-market, high unmet medical need. We do think we're going to be pursuing a broad population there. Nonetheless, we would anticipate the early uptake probably in the low eosinophilic population, where there are really no biologic options right now.

Cory Kasimov

analyst
#12

Okay. I've had a number of investor questions come in, so I'm just going to tackle them as quickly as possible in the order I got them. First one follows up on tezepelumab, and these are on a variety of different subjects. But I think this is in response to something Bob said in his presentation. Will the flight of people from cities, I presume because of COVID, and the rise of remote work, alter the asthma market and put peak sales for tezepelumab at risk?

Robert Bradway

executive
#13

No. I mean, I don't think so. I think the urbanization that I'm referring to is a megatrend that will persist long after COVID-19. So I don't think so. But irrespective, the market for asthma is growing globally. Unfortunately, with a more industrialized world as well, we see more particles in the air, more respiratory challenges for patients around the globe. And I think that's a trend that is here to stay.

Cory Kasimov

analyst
#14

All right. Next one's also on tezepelumab. And it's, are you able to disclose which medical conference we'll see the full Phase III data? And will you tell us if the less than 150 eosinophil low subgroup is statistically significant? And what is the commercial opportunity in that low subgroup? So a few questions in there.

David Reese

executive
#15

Yes. No, we haven't, as per conference rules, disclosed which meeting the tezepelumab data will be presented at, but you'll be seeing that in due course over the next coming months. In the less than 150, the way the protocol was designed, it's not statistical. There was not a formal statistical test. But as we indicated in the press release, the clinical effects in that group were comparable to what we had seen in the overall low eosinophilic population, i.e., less than 300. The profile, again, was kind of spot on with what we were hoping for. And this is a population in less than 150 eosinophils where no biologic has ever really shown any sort of effect. So to me, that is just -- it's a really kind of groundbreaking result. Murdo, I don't know if you want to add a little bit to that.

Murdo Gordon

executive
#16

Yes. Just a comment, Dave, on the kind of the prevalence. The eosinophilic epidemiology data are a little fuzzy. They're a bit hard to pin down. But if you look at the 150 cutoff, you're probably looking at about 1/3 of severe asthma patients. And if you look at the 300 cells per microliter cutoff, you're looking at about 60% of patients. So these are substantial portions of patients with lower eosinophilic counts that could benefit from tezepelumab, given very few treatment options there for them.

Cory Kasimov

analyst
#17

Okay. Next question we have is on -- a multipart question on biosimilars. Can -- what were the MVASI market shares in prior quarters? And what's your long-term outlook for that product and KANJINTI, so your more mature biosimilars? And then lastly, what competitive dynamics long term -- what do you see as competitive dynamics long term as other entrants come into the picture?

Robert Bradway

executive
#18

I said in my remarks, I shared 2 share data points, Murdo, 44% for MVASI and I think it was 34% for KANJINTI as of the third quarter. So we've provided some share data on prior calls. Cory, you can help, whoever the investor is, with the specific data. But Murdo, do you want to talk about the outlook there?

Murdo Gordon

executive
#19

Yes. Sure, Bob. Thanks. We're obviously pleased with the uptake that we've been able to achieve so far with the share numbers that Bob presented. And we're pleased, over the last few weeks of the year, with how they evolved. I think over time, we would expect the incremental share gains to slow down, and we would expect some negative price effects continuing throughout the year, albeit at potentially a slower cadence than we saw in the launch year, which was in 2020. Longer term, the biosimilar portfolio, I'm fortunate to have inherited a very sound strategic decision from Bob and the team. And I think you can see the emergence of this business turning over at about $2 billion globally. We expect to be able to add to that portfolio of products over time. This -- we just launched RIABNI, which is our biosimilar to Rituxan, as Bob mentioned; and of course, AVSOLA, our other biosimilar to Remicade. We also anticipate having biosimilars available to Soliris, EYLEA and STELARA. Those are the ones that we've publicly disclosed. And we will look for other target molecules that make sense for us. I'm really appreciative of the strength of the team that we have internally here at Amgen, in clinical development, process development and in the commercial realm that are able to prioritize, filter through these assets and then design and develop strong molecules that we can manufacture with reliability for patients.

Cory Kasimov

analyst
#20

Okay. Next question we have here is on ENBREL. And what's your longer-term outlook for ENBREL? And can you remind us of your assumptions around biosimilar competition?

Robert Bradway

executive
#21

We're going to do this in 2 parts. Murdo, I can just pick up on the IP front and remind you that we have intellectual property coverage for this molecule through 2029. So this is a product that we continue to invest in and we continue to believe has an important role to play for patients that's suffering from inflammatory diseases that it is approved for. Inflammation is, as you know, a core area and will continue to be for us for both proprietary and biosimilar products. And Murdo, if you want to address any of the specifics of 2023 when we launch AMGEVITA or any other specifics, jump in.

Murdo Gordon

executive
#22

Yes. It's obviously a very competitive market. I'm pleased with how ENBREL has held up over the last few years where we've been able to hold on to decent net price evolution and good market access coverage and still be competitive. But there are a lot of new entrants on the innovator side that have chipped away at our share. And of course, there will be the advent of new biosimilar entrants and we'll be one of those. We have AMGEVITA, our biosimilar to HUMIRA. That will put some pressure on ENBREL going forward. But we are continuing to make investments in ENBREL. We did increase our investment in direct-to-consumer advertising throughout the course of 2020. We make investments in improving our device with the ENBREL Mini with AutoTouch and further advancing that. So it's a product with a lot of focus, a lot of attention. And while under competitive pressure, we'll do everything we can to help influence that trajectory.

Cory Kasimov

analyst
#23

Okay. And then in our last minute, any potential benefit that you see from 340B policy?

Robert Bradway

executive
#24

I'm not sure what specifically you're asking about, Cory, but -- so I think the short answer is -- would probably be no. But you are -- give me more specifics in the question?

Cory Kasimov

analyst
#25

It's coming from somebody else and has read it exactly word for word. So I can't give any more specifics. Maybe I'll go to David then for one final one, then we wrap up. Any assets in the internal pipeline you think are currently being overlooked or misunderstood by investors?

David Reese

executive
#26

I think the programs that Bob outlined in the course of his presentation, the up-and-coming inflammation programs: AMG 592, AMG 570, AMG 714, Olpasiran or AMG 890 for Lp(a), and then a couple of solid tumor BiTEs, I would say stay tuned to those spaces over the course of the year. But a lot of activity there, and again, a lot of that is novel Amgen science and first-in-class.

Cory Kasimov

analyst
#27

Perfect. I think we'll -- we'd love to carry on this conversation, but we're out of time. So thank you guys very much for joining us today. Always appreciate it. And best of luck.

Robert Bradway

executive
#28

[ O-H ].

Cory Kasimov

analyst
#29

I know.

Robert Bradway

executive
#30

All right. Happy New Year, everybody. Thank you.

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