Amgen 2000 Annual Report Download - page 5

4
DEAR FELLOW
SHAREHOLDER:
Amgen Values
• Be science-based
• Work in teams
• Compete intensely and win
• Create value for patients, staff, and stockholders
• Trust and respect each other
• Collaborate, communicate, and build consensus
• Ensure quality
• Be ethical
The year 2000 was one of accomplishment and growth for
Amgen, and the future has never looked more promising.
This year is off to a great start with our recent victory in the
Aventis/TKT litigation regarding erythropoietin in the U.S.
District Court. In the next five years, we hope to more than
double the size of the company in terms of revenues and
products on the market. We also will substantially expand the
number of patients we serve and the size of Amgen’s staff.
There are challenges, to be sure, in meeting our goals, but
we are confident that we have the people, the strategy, and
the resources necessary to make our future even brighter
than our past.
Reviewing the significant progress Amgen made toward
each of the six goals established by our executive manage-
ment team after I became CEO last May provides a good
summary of our recent progress and plans for the future.
The first goal was to align the company around a
shared aspiration built from a common set of values. We
reaffirmed our commitment to eight fundamental Amgen
values developed several years ago: be science-based;
work in teams; compete intensely and win; create value for
patients, staff, and stockholders; trust and respect each
other; collaborate, communicate, and build consensus;
ensure quality; and be ethical.
As a company, we also worked hard to develop a shared
aspiration. The pace of scientific innovation and medical
understanding is accelerating every day, making a technology-
based foundation too limiting for us. At the same time, the
competitive landscape is changing as the industry restructures
and competition for innovative therapeutics increases in
intensity. In the face of these and other changes, we strongly
agreed—as a company—that one approach would serve us
enduringly: focus our efforts on using science and innovation
to dramatically improve people’s lives. Broadening this
thought, we agreed on a shared aspiration to become the
world’s best human therapeutics company.
There is no single definition that captures what we mean
by “best.” We know it includes delivering a stream of innova-
tive products that dramatically improve people’s lives, being a
place where the best people choose to work, and outperform-
ing our peers in delivering value to shareholders. By adopting
such a broad aspiration, we are committing ourselves fully to
improving continuously along every important dimension of
Amgen’s activities.
The second goal was to prepare to launch a stream of
new products beginning in 2001, with a particular focus on
ARANESP™ (darbepoetin alfa). Depending upon regulatory
approvals, we could launch four new products in the next 18
months —ARANESP™, anakinra, abarelix-depot, and SD/01.
That is why we have spent heavily on clinical development to
ensure our products’ characteristics are widely and thoroughly
tested and documented. We have prepared and submitted
regulatory filings around the world to obtain the fastest and best
approvals possible. We have worked hard to understand physi-
cians’ and other providers’ attitudes to be sure our messages
will be persuasive and reimbursement will be available, and we
have built new field forces to ensure that our voice is heard.
We believe ARANESP™represents a new standard of care
for treating anemia in chronic renal failure, and in other
settings. Amgen is determined to become the world leader in
treating patients with all types of anemia, one of the most
under-recognized and under-treated of diseases. We estimate
the worldwide anemia market could be as large as $10 billion
by 2005. Introducing ARANESP™globally gives it the potential
to be Amgen’s biggest product ever.
Anakinra, interleukin-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1ra), is the
cornerstone of our inflammation franchise. We estimate the
market for biological therapies in rheumatoid arthritis could