ZUG, Switzerland, Oct. 25, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Amgen (Europe) GmbH, an affiliate of Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) (collectively, "Amgen") today announced an investment in eHealth Ventures, an Israel-based digital health incubator. The investment reflects Amgen's commitment to serving patients by driving innovation and sustainable healthcare through technology discovery, and recognizes the importance of Israel as a source of innovation in eHealth and digital technologies. Additional investors include Israeli HMO Maccabi Healthcare Services and Amgen's Israeli distributor Medison Pharma Ltd. Amgen will be the lead biopharmaceutical investor.

"Engaging in multi-stakeholder partnerships will drive innovation and enable us to deliver additional value to patients and the healthcare community, beyond our life-saving medicines," said Corinne Le Goff, senior vice president, Amgen Europe. "This collaboration with eHealth Ventures is a natural fit for Amgen and will help us expand our digital health pipeline and support the growth of valuable health technology to improve the lives of patients across the world."

"We are proud to have Amgen, a global market leader, join the eHealth Ventures unique consortium together with Maccabi Healthcare Services, Cleveland Clinic and Medison Pharma. This addition will provide a new strategic element to our screening process and build significant value to our portfolio companies. Having Amgen on board will deliver invaluable assets and know-how in many of the digital health innovation aspects, including market input, commercialization of R&D, business modeling, go-to-market strategies and more," said Talor Sax, eHealth Ventures Incubator chief executive officer. "We are grateful to our partner Medison Pharma, for realizing this vision and making this partnership a reality."

About eHealth Ventures
eHealth Ventures, a consortium of world-class organizations and investors active in the field of digital health, was launched in March of 2016 with Israeli government backing. The consortium, which comprises Cleveland Clinic, a leading US hospital, Maccabi Healthcare Services, Israel's leading and most advanced health provider, and Medison Pharma, Israel's largest independent specialty pharmaceutical company and Amgen's distributor in Israel, aims to invest in 40 new companies over an eight year period. 

About Amgen
Amgen is committed to unlocking the potential of biology for patients suffering from serious illnesses by discovering, developing, manufacturing and delivering innovative human therapeutics. This approach begins by using tools like advanced human genetics to unravel the complexities of disease and understand the fundamentals of human biology.

Amgen focuses on areas of high unmet medical need and leverages its expertise to strive for solutions that improve health outcomes and dramatically improve people's lives. A biotechnology pioneer since 1980, Amgen has grown to be one of the world's leading independent biotechnology companies, has reached millions of patients around the world and is developing a pipeline of medicines with breakaway potential. 

For more information, visit www.amgen.com and follow us on www.twitter.com/amgen.

Forward Looking Statements
This news release contains forward-looking statements that are based on the current expectations and beliefs of Amgen. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements, including estimates of revenues, operating margins, capital expenditures, cash, other financial metrics, expected legal, arbitration, political, regulatory or clinical results or practices, customer and prescriber patterns or practices, reimbursement activities and outcomes and other such estimates and results. Forward-looking statements involve significant risks and uncertainties, including those discussed below and more fully described in the Securities and Exchange Commission reports filed by Amgen, including our most recent annual report on Form 10-K and any subsequent periodic reports on Form 10-Q and Form 8-K. Unless otherwise noted, Amgen is providing this information as of the date of this news release and does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this document as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

No forward-looking statement can be guaranteed and actual results may differ materially from those we project. Our results may be affected by our ability to successfully market both new and existing products domestically and internationally, clinical and regulatory developments involving current and future products, sales growth of recently launched products, competition from other products including biosimilars, difficulties or delays in manufacturing our products and global economic conditions. In addition, sales of our products are affected by pricing pressure, political and public scrutiny and reimbursement policies imposed by third-party payers, including governments, private insurance plans and managed care providers and may be affected by regulatory, clinical and guideline developments and domestic and international trends toward managed care and healthcare cost containment. Furthermore, our research, testing, pricing, marketing and other operations are subject to extensive regulation by domestic and foreign government regulatory authorities. We or others could identify safety, side effects or manufacturing problems with our products after they are on the market. Our business may be impacted by government investigations, litigation and product liability claims. In addition, our business may be impacted by the adoption of new tax legislation or exposure to additional tax liabilities. If we fail to meet the compliance obligations in the corporate integrity agreement between us and the U.S. government, we could become subject to significant sanctions. Further, while we routinely obtain patents for our products and technology, the protection offered by our patents and patent applications may be challenged, invalidated or circumvented by our competitors, or we may fail to prevail in present and future intellectual property litigation. We perform a substantial amount of our commercial manufacturing activities at a few key facilities and also depend on third parties for a portion of our manufacturing activities, and limits on supply may constrain sales of certain of our current products and product candidate development. In addition, we compete with other companies with respect to many of our marketed products as well as for the discovery and development of new products. Discovery or identification of new product candidates cannot be guaranteed and movement from concept to product is uncertain; consequently, there can be no guarantee that any particular product candidate will be successful and become a commercial product. Further, some raw materials, medical devices and component parts for our products are supplied by sole third-party suppliers. The discovery of significant problems with a product similar to one of our products that implicate an entire class of products could have a material adverse effect on sales of the affected products and on our business and results of operations. Our efforts to acquire other companies or products and to integrate the operations of companies we have acquired may not be successful. We may not be able to access the capital and credit markets on terms that are favorable to us, or at all. We are increasingly dependent on information technology systems, infrastructure and data security. Our stock price is volatile and may be affected by a number of events. Our business performance could affect or limit the ability of our Board of Directors to declare a dividend or our ability to pay a dividend or repurchase our common stock.

CONTACT: Amgen (Europe) GmbH , 6300 Zug, Switzerland
Emma Gilbert +41 (0)79 179 9938 (media)

CONTACT: Amgen, Thousand Oaks
Kristen Davis, 805-447-3008 (Media)
Kristen Neese, 805-313-8267 (Media)
Arvind Sood, 805-447-1060 (Investors)

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SOURCE Amgen

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