Morgan Stanley analyst Matthew Harrison said he would expect some pressure on Amgen shares after the company's 2020 revenue guidance was 1% below at the mid-point and its EPS guidance missed consensus by 6%. However, he believes management is being conservative "across the board with costs" and he also points to "many major pipeline readouts" as key drivers in 2020. Harrison, who continues to see Amgen being well positioned for strong performance in 2020, keeps an Overweight rating on the stock with an unchanged $277 price target.

Amgen announced the imminent submission of a Marketing Authorization Application, or MAA, to the European Medicines Agency, or EMA, for teprotumumab, a fully human monoclonal antibody and targeted inhibitor of the insulin-like growth factor-1 receptor, or IGF-1R, for the treatment of moderate to severe Thyroid Eye Disease, or TED, in adults. TED is a serious, progressive, debilitating and potentially vision-threatening autoimmune disease that can cause proptosis, diplopia, eye pain, redness and swelling.1 If approved, teprotumumab would be the first and only medicine approved for TED in the European Union. The MAA is supported by multiple well-controlled clinical studies - a Phase 2 clinical study NCT01868997, Phase 3 confirmatory clinical study OPTIC NCT03298867, a Phase 4 study NCT04583735, and a Phase 3 clinical trial in Japan OPTIC-J, jRCT2031210453 - providing statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvements across multiple facets of TED, including in proptosis and diplopia, among the 287 total patients studied. Additionally, the studies assessed TED signs and symptoms such as pain, inflammation, redness and functional vision. Clinical improvements were seen in proptosis as early as six weeks, with continued improvement across the 24-week treatment period.2 Teprotumumab has a well-established safety profile.