Amgen's second quarter arrived at a moment every large-cap biopharma wants to manage toward: the legacy erosion franchise was shrinking on schedule, the newer medicines were running on their own growth rails, and the GLP-1 read-out machine had just begun turning. Total revenues rose 9% to $10.1 billion, product sales 9% on volume, and the company's six named growth drivers - Repatha, EVENITY, UPLIZNA, TEZSPIRE, IMDELLTRA and TAVNEOS - grew 26% and now account for nearly 70% of quarterly product sales. GAAP diluted earnings per share of $4.37 were a 65% jump from a year ago. Non-GAAP EPS of $6.29 rose a more modest 4%, held back by higher operating expense and a higher tax rate. The gap is the entire quarter in one number: the GAAP line captured the 6.5-percentage-point expansion in operating margin to 36.8% as acquisition-related intangible amortization from Horizon rolled off; the non-GAAP line, which excludes that amortization, was the same business on a different basis. The growth shift from legacy to new is now structural, and the company used the quarter to lift 2026 guidance: full-year total revenues to $38.2–$39.4 billion, GAAP EPS to $15.80–$17.08, non-GAAP EPS to $22.30–$23.50. Every line moved up; the midpoint of revenue, GAAP EPS and non-GAAP EPS all sit above what the company had been carrying.
The second look is where the quarter lives. Operating margin at 48.4% non-GAAP held within a half-point of a year ago; free cash flow of $3.5 billion in the quarter was 83% above the prior-year quarter, distorted by last year's final repatriation tax payment but genuinely stronger underneath; cash and equivalents ended June at $14.0 billion against total debt of $57.3 billion, a leverage position the company is actively reshaping. Repatha, the PCSK9 antibody bought back into the portfolio in the 2022 Horizon deal, posted a 37% volume-driven jump to $953 million; the rare-disease portfolio grew broadly with UPLIZNA at +90% to $335 million and TEPEZZA up 14%; oncology's IMDELLTRA more than doubled to $288 million. The quarter's main drag - Prolia, down 32% to $759 million as global biosimilars landed - was anticipated and is being offset by XGEVA, the same molecule, declining 34% to $352 million for the same reason. The biosimilar wave was always the trade. The product engine is now younger than it was a year ago, and the company is spending accordingly: research and development expense rose 10% non-GAAP with most of the lift going to MariTide, the GLP-1/GIP receptor program running nine Phase 3 studies, including head-to-head switch studies against tirzepatide and semaglutide. This is a quarter where the headline beat, the structure of the company moved, and the next decade's optionality got funded out of operating cash flow. The market response was modest - the stock sits about 1% off its 52-week high at $416.18, up roughly 54% from the September-2025 low. It is being priced as if the next two readouts will arrive on time, which is the bet the report needs to falsify.