TO MY FELLOW SHAREHOLDERS:
Amgen performed very effectively in 2022, reaching roughly 10 million patients around the world with our approved medicines, advancing many promising new medicines, delivering strong financial performance, and keeping the Company on track to achieve attractive growth through the end of the decade.
Total revenues in 2022 were up 1% from the prior year to a record $26.3 billion. We also achieved record non-GAAP earnings per share of $17.69, up 27% from the prior year, and free cash flow of $8.8 billion. In a challenging year for the stock market as a whole, Amgen delivered total shareholder return in 2022 of 20%, ahead of the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ Biotechnology indices, both of which declined last year. We returned approximately $10.5 billion to shareholders in 2022 through share repurchases and dividends, with our dividend increasing for the eleventh consecutive year, up 10% per share over 2021.
Our portfolio now includes 27 approved medicines, 16 of which generated record 2022 sales and nine of which generated 2022 sales in excess of $1 billion. Looking across our portfolio as a whole, we achieved healthy volume growth of 9% in 2022, partially offset by a 5% decline in net selling price.
A number of our innovative medicines performed particularly well last year, including our cholesterol treatment Repatha® (sales +16% versus the prior year), our osteoporosis medicines EVENITY® (+48%) and Prolia® (+12%), and several of our oncology and hematology therapies, such as Nplate® (+27%), BLINCYTO® (+24%), and KYPROLIS® (+13%). Two of our newest innovations – LUMAKRAS®/LUMYKRAS™ to treat a type of non-small cell lung cancer and TEZSPIRE® to treat severe asthma – collectively contributed more than $450 million in 2022 sales, and we are pursuing additional indications for both.
ADVANCING OUR PIPELINE
We invested $4.4 billion in research and development in 2022, with three-quarters of the molecules in our pipeline representing potential first-in-class medicines for serious diseases where new treatments are very much needed. I'll highlight three of these medicines that we are advancing rapidly through clinical development.
Olpasiran is being studied in patients with high levels of lipoprotein(a), a type of "bad" cholesterol that is genetically determined and cannot be modified by diet or exercise. Phase 2 data released in 2022 showed remarkable reductions in lipoprotein(a) levels of as much as 95% in patients with established cardiovascular disease. We are currently enrolling several thousand patients in a phase 3 cardiovascular outcomes trial.
Tarlatamab is being studied as a treatment for relapsed/refractory small-cell lung cancer (SCLC), a very aggressive disease where the five-year survival rate is a mere 3%. We released phase 1 data last year showing that tarlatamab delivered significant antitumor activity and very encouraging overall survival rates and response durability in heavily pretreated SCLC patients. We are now enrolling patients in a potentially registrational trial of tarlatamab.
AMG 133 is a potential new medicine to treat obesity, one of the most pressing public health issues of our time. Once thought to be a matter of lifestyle solvable through “willpower,” obesity is now understood to be a complex, serious disease that affects approximately 750 million people worldwide and one which can lead to a myriad of health problems. Last year, we announced results from a phase 1 trial showing that a once-monthly dose of AMG 133 produced weight loss that was notable for its degree, rate, and durability. We have initiated a phase 2 trial of AMG 133 and are studying additional, earlier-stage molecules to treat obesity, all with different mechanisms of action.
ACCESSING EXTERNAL INNOVATION
Even as we continue to invest heavily in our own pipeline, we also recognize that there is great innovation happening outside our Company. In October of last year, we acquired ChemoCentryx, Inc. (ChemoCentryx) for approximately $3.8 billion, net of cash acquired, adding to our portfolio TAVNEOS®, a first-in-class medicine to treat antineutrophil cytoplasmic autoantibody (ANCA)-associated vasculitis, an autoimmune disease that leads to inflammation and eventual destruction of small blood vessels in vital organs such as the kidneys.
In December, we announced an agreement to acquire Horizon Therapeutics plc (Horizon) for $27.8 billion. The acquisition is expected to close in the first half of this year and will add a number of first-in-class biologic medicines to our portfolio that treat serious inflammatory diseases. Horizon's best-selling product, TEPEZZA®, for example, is the first and only medicine approved in the U.S. for the treatment of active thyroid eye disease, a progressive and potentially vision-threatening disease that can cause symptoms such as eye bulging and double vision.
OPERATING RESPONSIBLY
Society confronts many challenges and is increasingly looking to the business community for solutions. I'll share two ways Amgen is looking to help. We know, for example, that young people around the world do not have equal access to science education – a reality that the COVID-19 pandemic only served to exacerbate. And so in 2020 the Amgen Foundation and Harvard University launched LabXchange, a free, online science education platform that enables students to practice scientific experiments using interactive simulations of the same cutting-edge equipment found in modern biotech laboratories. In 2022, the Amgen Foundation announced that it would more than double its financial commitment to LabXchange over the next three years as part of a push to reach 50 million users worldwide by 2025.
We also know that minority-owned businesses in the U.S. have all too often lacked the capital they need to flourish. Earlier this year, Amgen committed to investing $150 million in Project Black, a fund that will create minority-owned businesses of scale that can serve as suppliers to Fortune 500 companies that spend billions of dollars a year on outside goods and services. This is consistent with the goal Amgen set in 2020 to double our 2019 spend with diverse suppliers in the U.S. and triple our spend with Black-owned businesses by 2023. It's also complementary to our participation in OneTen, a coalition of companies collectively seeking to hire 1 million Black Americans into good-paying jobs over the next 10 years.
LEADING INTO THE FUTURE
This is an exciting time to be in biotechnology. The need for innovative medicines has never been greater, driven by a rapidly-aging global population. Our ability to innovate has never been greater, either, driven by remarkable advances in science and technology. Amgen has been a biotechnology leader for more than 40 years, and I believe we are very well-positioned to build on our leadership in the coming years.
Everything we achieved last year, and everything we will achieve moving forward, is due to the hard work and commitment of our people. They are passionate about our mission to serve patients, they are clear on how their work contributes to our success, and they are ready to seize the many opportunities that await us. I'm grateful to all of them.
On behalf of Amgen's board of directors, our senior leadership team, and our employees around the world, I thank you for your continued support of our Company and the important work we do.
Robert A. Bradway
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
March 18, 2023
Please note that the above content is a structured representation of the shareholder's letter from Amgen Inc.'s Annual Report for the year 2022, as per the instructions provided. The financial figures and statements are based on the information available up to the knowledge cutoff date and should not be considered current financial advice or guidance.
Read the original letter here.
