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