Amgen announces cutbacks

As the Thousand Oaks Acorn was going to press, Amgen announced it will restructure by reducing staff 12 to 14 percent- 2,200 to 2,600 workers- along with other cutbacks.

The initiatives are expected to be complete by 2008 and save the Newbury Park company about $1 billion.

Approval changes from the FDA affecting how the drugs Epogen and Aranesp are to be labeled will adversely affect Amgen's revenue, CEO Kevin Sharer said.

Amgen also changed its adjusted earnings projection for 2007 from $4.28 to between $4.13 and $4.23 per share.

Capital investments will be reduced by about $1.9 billion during 2007-08 to improve cash flow.

Some production operations will be closed, and other facilities will be scaled down.

Amgen is a biotechnology company that began in 1980.

The Thousand Oaks Acorn will continue to follow the development of this story.

A more in-depth article will be in next week's edition.

- Nancy Needham