Transcript: Amgen's R&D Vision

With David Reese, Head of Research & Development, Amgen

One of my core beliefs is that we are at a hinge moment in the biopharmaceutical industry.

We are seeing profound changes in drug discovery and development powered by the union of technology and biotechnology.

At Amgen we have been preparing for this moment for over a decade, leveraging our expertise in

  • Human data - To advance precision medicine by helping predict disease progression and response to therapy.
  • Multispecifics and other modalities - To drug the undruggable by engaging one or more targets at once.
  • AI and data science - To design better biologics more quickly and effectively.
  • And clinical trial innovation - To speed up and improve trials using the latest technologies.

We would not be where we are today without our extraordinary team of people.

Amgen is consistently ranked a top place to work. We foster a diverse, inclusive environment, where everyone feels they belong.

We do this by committing to improving diversity at every level - from who can access our medicines, to who leads and participates in our research and clinical trials.

Ultimately what motivates us to do this work? We believe that for every patient, there is a solution.

To support Amgen's drive to serve patients, the R&D organization aims to discover, develop and deliver life changing medicines to patients everywhere. To accomplish this mission, we need to take full advantage of opportunities arising from rapid scientific progress and new technologies. Biotechnology and the data sciences are advancing at blinding speed, opening up immense new possibilities. At the same time, competition within the industry is intensifying, and there are more and steeper barriers to medical access.

To keep pace with these rapidly changing opportunities and challenges, Amgen has adopted a dynamic R&D strategy. It is designed to:

  • Focus on large effect sizes in serious illnesses with unmet need.
  • Look to the biology first to understand disease and design new potential therapies.
  • Bring together our leading internal innovation with world-class external innovation.

With the union of technology and biotechnology, we are at a hinge moment in drug discovery and development. Amgen's scientific success is rooted in unique capabilities that include:

By building on Amgen's long-standing strengths in science and biotechnology, and with the addition of the latest in technology, we have a clear purpose: For every patient – a solution.

— David M. Reese, Executive Vice President, Research and Development


 

Our Vision

A world where science defeats all disease.


 

Our Priorities

Improve our success rates.

Focus our people and investments more intensely on the most promising technologies and activities most likely to lead to new therapies.

Reduce cycle times.

The industry's standard timeline of 12 to 14 years from project start to drug approval is not viable. Amgen has already reduced its drug development timelines, but there is still ample room for improvements.

Broaden access and use.

Gaining regulatory approval for new therapies is only half the battle. In the end, only one metric matters: Are the patients who need Amgen medicines actually getting them?

Our Strategic Imperatives

Make focused investment in innovative research platforms

  • Focus research investments in cardiovascular and metabolic, inflammation and cancer therapeutic areas. Rapidly expand the scale and diversity of our human omics platforms to move towards a precision medicine approach to drug discovery and development.
  • Expand our human data resources to include proteomics, transcriptomics and clinical/real world data. This will generate deeper insights into disease biology, find new drug targets and speed up clinical trials.
  • Use our molecular engineering strength combined with the power of AI/machine learning to expand on the success of current drug platforms, including multispecifics such as BiTE® molecules, and pioneer novel modalities to address targets now seen as undruggable.

Innovate in Clinical Development

  • Increase the speed and efficiency of clinical trials and improve success rates through greater use of modelling and simulation, adaptive designs and real-world evidence.
  • Increase recruitment of patients who will potentially benefit most from new therapies, design smaller and faster studies with larger response rates by using human data, including genetics and omics.

Address access and use at all stages of drug development

  • Engage with healthcare professionals, regulators and payors to enable broader and faster access to therapies.
  • Accelerate bringing molecules from the lab, through the clinic, to approval and to patients around the world because of the immense interconnected R&D ecosystem so the patients who need our medicines most are getting them as fast as possible.

Support Our People

Our past and future success relies on our people – they form the foundation for all that we do. We will continue to build an R&D culture that supports, develops and nurtures a diverse talent base energized by the rapid scientific progress and new technology we are using to push the boundaries of science. Our teams are vested in a collective accountability for our success.