Amgen open to bigger deals while staying disciplined

After sitting out for most of the biotech acquisition frenzy of 2015, Amgen Inc. is ready to do a deal.

In the past year, the drugmaker has introduced six products, digested its last major acquisition — the $10 billion purchase of cancer drugmaker Onyx in 2013 — and undertaken a companywide restructuring.

Time is ripe for bigger targets again, and the challenge is to be patient, says Chief Financial Officer David Meline.

Amgen is now “more energetic about being out there,” but passed on some potential deals in the second half of last year that weren’t a perfect fit, Meline said in an interview at the company’s headquarters in Thousand Oaks (Ventura County).

In cardiovascular, Amgen recently gained approval for cholesterol drug Repatha and heart failure drug Corlanor.

Amgen has also reduced its workforce and closed facilities in Washington state and Colorado as part of a reorganization announced in July 2014.

David Piacquad, senior vice president of business development, said his team sees about 3,000 opportunities a year, from small academic licensing deals to acquisitions.

The marching orders, he says, are simply to “do deals that make sense.”