THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. and SAN DIEGO, June 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) and Piper Jordan, one of the nation's leading health and benefits consulting firms, today announced a unique partnership to help improve health and well-being in the workplace for people living with migraine. The collaboration aims to provide disease management resources to both the employee and employer through innovative educational programs, including well-being initiatives for those living with migraine. This marks the first Amgen partnership with an employee benefit consultant (EBC) and is Amgen's first migraine-specific project with employers.

The burden of migraine has been under-recognized, despite the fact that American employers lose an estimated $11 billion each year, largely due to missed work days and lost productivity.¹ In fact, in a recent global migraine patient survey, employed respondents in the U.S. reported they felt a lack of support and judged at work. Although the majority of their employers (80 percent) knew about their migraine, only 21 percent offered support, all of which underscores the need for better awareness and support in the workplace.²

"Migraine is a distinct neurological disease that is too often stigmatized or overlooked in the workplace. This unique partnership reinforces Amgen's commitment to giving individuals impacted by migraine a voice in both their professional and personal lives," said Joshua J. Ofman, M.D., senior vice president, Global Value, Access and Policy at Amgen. "We hope this serves as a positive example for other companies and implores them to better understand why and how they should treat migraine as a serious disease. We believe wholeheartedly in promoting an open and ongoing dialogue among those with migraine and their employers."

Amgen and Piper Jordan will launch a migraine disease management program, "Manage My Migraine," to several large employers representing more than 50,000 employees across multiple industries. The program consists of an educational program component as well as a research study, which will help unlock insights around the burden of migraine in the workplace, including its impact on absenteeism, presenteeism, healthcare utilization and costs. The wellness portion of the program includes five unique webinars, email tips and a website containing disease information. The study portion of the program includes a mobile app to track migraine symptoms that will be analyzed.

"As an employee benefits management group that offers workplace programs to a multitude of employers across the United States, we are delighted to be partnering with Amgen on this initiative," said Robyn Piper, Partner at Piper Jordan. "Both Amgen and Piper Jordan are committed to better understanding the burden of migraine and addressing stigma in the workplace." 

Together, Amgen and Piper Jordan will use the insights gained in this project to inform future strategy and determine how to best disseminate the study findings to benefit those living with migraine.

"Migraine affects millions of Americans, especially those during their prime working years," said Lori Johnston, senior vice president of Human Resources at Amgen. "Although employers provide a variety of disease management programs, rarely are programs offered specifically for people living with migraine. We're thrilled to be partnering with Piper Jordan to challenge public perception of migraine disease and facilitate informed communication among people with the disease and those who live and work with them."

Piper Jordan manages population health programs for national, large market employers across the U.S., representing employees across a multitude of industries.

About Migraine
People with frequent migraine may lose more than half their life to migraine. They endure debilitating pain, physical impairment, and live in constant dread of the next attack – all of which is compounded by a widespread misperception of the disease.³ The 2016 Global Burden of Disease Study ranks migraine among the top 10 causes of years lived with disability worldwide.⁴ Migraine is associated with personal and societal burdens of pain, disability, and financial cost, and it remains under-recognized and under-treated.³

About Piper Jordan
Piper Jordan is a national professional services firm devoted to delivering innovative benefit and health care management strategies to large employers. Their health care practice is built around the core values of controlling employer cost without sacrificing quality. Drawing from a strong history of analyzing complex employer and population health needs, Piper Jordan is keenly focused on providing high-performance insights and is dedicated to providing its full array of resources and talent for the development of effective employer-sponsored health care programs.  For more information, visit www.piperjordan.com.

About Amgen
Amgen is committed to unlocking the potential of biology for patients suffering from serious illnesses by discovering, developing, manufacturing and delivering innovative human therapeutics. This approach begins by using tools like advanced human genetics to unravel the complexities of disease and understand the fundamentals of human biology.

Amgen focuses on areas of high unmet medical need and leverages its biologics manufacturing expertise to strive for solutions that improve health outcomes and dramatically improve people's lives. A biotechnology pioneer since 1980, Amgen has grown to be the world's largest independent biotechnology company, has reached millions of patients around the world and is developing a pipeline of medicines with breakaway potential. 

For more information, visit www.amgen.com and follow us on www.twitter.com/amgen.

Amgen and Value-Based Programs          
As a collaborative partner within the healthcare system, Amgen believes that engaging in value-based programs with stakeholders creates mutually beneficial opportunities to improve costs, quality of care and the patient experience.

Globally, Amgen is engaged in over 75 distinct, value-based projects, spanning disease state collaborations, risk sharing, cost-cap programs, and outcomes-based agreements. The company has more than 25 ongoing partnerships in the United States and has several other collaborations under development. 

About Amgen and Novartis Neuroscience Collaboration
In August 2015, Amgen entered into a global collaboration with Novartis to develop and commercialize pioneering treatments in the field of migraine and Alzheimer's disease. At the center of the Amgen and Novartis neuroscience collaboration is the shared mission to fight migraine and the stereotypes and misperceptions surrounding this debilitating disease.

About the Amgen and Novartis Migraine Mission
Migraine has gone under-appreciated and under-treated for too long. Amgen and Novartis have committed to leading the charge together against migraine misperceptions. Through outreach and education our goal is to challenge public perception of migraine disease, assist people in getting the treatment they need and facilitate informed communication among people with migraine and those who live and work with them, including co-workers, employers and insurers. Future initiatives will include a focus on addressing how stigma against migraine manifests in the workplace: migraine gets in between people and their careers, and in between employee and employer. We hope our workplace program will serve as an example to coworkers, employers and human resources to help each party understand why and how they should treat migraine as a serious disease.

Forward Looking Statements
This news release contains forward-looking statements that are based on the current expectations and beliefs of Amgen. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements, including estimates of revenues, operating margins, capital expenditures, cash, other financial metrics, expected legal, arbitration, political, regulatory or clinical results or practices, customer and prescriber patterns or practices, reimbursement activities and outcomes and other such estimates and results. Forward-looking statements involve significant risks and uncertainties, including those discussed below and more fully described in the Securities and Exchange Commission reports filed by Amgen, including our most recent annual report on Form 10-K and any subsequent periodic reports on Form 10-Q and current reports on Form 8-K. Unless otherwise noted, Amgen is providing this information as of the date of this news release and does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this document as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

No forward-looking statement can be guaranteed and actual results may differ materially from those we project. Discovery or identification of new product candidates or development of new indications for existing products cannot be guaranteed and movement from concept to product is uncertain; consequently, there can be no guarantee that any particular product candidate or development of a new indication for an existing product will be successful and become a commercial product. Further, preclinical results do not guarantee safe and effective performance of product candidates in humans. The complexity of the human body cannot be perfectly, or sometimes, even adequately modeled by computer or cell culture systems or animal models. The length of time that it takes for us to complete clinical trials and obtain regulatory approval for product marketing has in the past varied and we expect similar variability in the future. Even when clinical trials are successful, regulatory authorities may question the sufficiency for approval of the trial endpoints we have selected. We develop product candidates internally and through licensing collaborations, partnerships and joint ventures. Product candidates that are derived from relationships may be subject to disputes between the parties or may prove to be not as effective or as safe as we may have believed at the time of entering into such relationship. Also, we or others could identify safety, side effects or manufacturing problems with our products, including our devices, after they are on the market.

Our results may be affected by our ability to successfully market both new and existing products domestically and internationally, clinical and regulatory developments involving current and future products, sales growth of recently launched products, competition from other products including biosimilars, difficulties or delays in manufacturing our products and global economic conditions. In addition, sales of our products are affected by pricing pressure, political and public scrutiny and reimbursement policies imposed by third-party payers, including governments, private insurance plans and managed care providers and may be affected by regulatory, clinical and guideline developments and domestic and international trends toward managed care and healthcare cost containment. Furthermore, our research, testing, pricing, marketing and other operations are subject to extensive regulation by domestic and foreign government regulatory authorities. Our business may be impacted by government investigations, litigation and product liability claims. In addition, our business may be impacted by the adoption of new tax legislation or exposure to additional tax liabilities. If we fail to meet the compliance obligations in the corporate integrity agreement between us and the U.S. government, we could become subject to significant sanctions. Further, while we routinely obtain patents for our products and technology, the protection offered by our patents and patent applications may be challenged, invalidated or circumvented by our competitors, or we may fail to prevail in present and future intellectual property litigation. We perform a substantial amount of our commercial manufacturing activities at a few key facilities, including Puerto Rico, and also depend on third parties for a portion of our manufacturing activities, and limits on supply may constrain sales of certain of our current products and product candidate development. In addition, we compete with other companies with respect to many of our marketed products as well as for the discovery and development of new products. Further, some raw materials, medical devices and component parts for our products are supplied by sole third-party suppliers. Certain of our distributors, customers and payers have substantial purchasing leverage in their dealings with us. The discovery of significant problems with a product similar to one of our products that implicate an entire class of products could have a material adverse effect on sales of the affected products and on our business and results of operations. Our efforts to acquire other companies or products and to integrate the operations of companies we have acquired may not be successful. A breakdown, cyberattack or information security breach could compromise the confidentiality, integrity and availability of our systems and our data. Our stock price is volatile and may be affected by several events. Our business performance could affect or limit the ability of our Board of Directors to declare a dividend or our ability to pay a dividend or repurchase our common stock. We may not be able to access the capital and credit markets on terms that are favorable to us, or at all.

CONTACT: Amgen, Thousand Oaks
Kristen Davis, 805-447-3008 (media)
Andrea Fassacesia, 805-905-2575 (media)
Arvind Sood, 805-447-1060 (investors)

References
¹ Hawkins K, et al. Indirect cost burden of migraine in the United States. J Occup Environ Med. 2007 Apr;49(4):368-74.
² Novartis Data on File
³ Lipton RB, et al. Migraine prevalence, disease burden, and the need for preventative therapy. Neurology. 2007; 68(5):343-9.
⁴ GBD 2016 Disease and Injury Incidence and Prevalence Collaborators. Global, regional, and national incidence, prevalence, and years lived with disability for 328 diseases and injuries for 195 countries, 1990–2016: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2016. Lancet. 2017;388:1545-1602.

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SOURCE Amgen