Amgen’s head of R&D and EVP of global commercial operations to leave the company

Amgen’s head of R&D Sean Harper is leaving his post after 5 years and will be succeeded by Dave Reese, current SVP of translational sciences and oncology. Tony Hooper, executive vice president of global commercial operations, is also leaving Amgen in September, and he will be replaced by Murdo Gordon, current CCO at BMS. Chief executive Robert Bradway said Gordon “has global experience at a time when we’re looking to continue to expand our geographic presence.”

Amgen’s interim results reported a 4% increase in revenues to $6.1bn which was about $400m more than expected. Their top-selling product Enbrel experienced a drop of 11% but Repatha for cholesterol was up 78%, Prolia for osteoporosis was up 21% and Xgeva for bone metastases was up 14%. Parsabiv made $73m after its first quarter launch.