Beleaguered by months of bad news about its flagship anemia franchise, Amgen Inc. got a boost last week after Goldman Sachs said the company is poised to accelerate its earnings growth.

The investment bank added the Thousand Oaks-based biotech to its “Americas Conviction Buy” list, saying the company has potential to return 17 percent on investment going forward.

Goldman noted that the company’s shares have performed well this year after Amgen reported positive results for its experimental osteoporosis drug denosumab, a potential blockbuster. In addition, sales of the anemia drugs Aranesp and Epogen are expected to level off after more than a year of declines due to safety concerns.

Amgen’s stock has faltered since studies showed the drugs sped up growth for certain tumors, and linked the treatments to greater risks of blood vessel blockage and death. Safety labeling by the Food and Drug Administration last month was largely in line with analyst expectations.

Shares of Amgen rose 1.1 percent on Aug. 14 after the Goldman news to close at $64.21, after earlier hitting a 52-week high of $65.02.

Health Insurance Transparency

Mid-size businesses should be able to gain more information from their health insurer and gain a stronger hand in negotiating rates under proposed state legislation to increase transparency.

The legislation, expected to be introduced this fall, would require insurance carriers to provide extensive claims reports to employers who request it.

The largest employers, many of whom are all or partially self-funded, already get this information. But smaller employers those with 50 to 1,000 employees are left in the dark, which puts them in a take-it-or-leave-it situation when negotiating rates each year, according to Jeff Miles, president of the Miles Organization, a Marina Del Rey health benefits agency and a national healthcare industry analyst.

“A very healthy smaller company with very little utilization often gets charged too much because the base rate is set too high to account for companies whose employees use more services,” said Miles, who heads the Health Insurance Professionals for Change, a group of benefits professionals seeking the legislation.

“Larger employers can use this information to get bids based on their actual claims history, but smaller companies are left with what their insurers tell them. This bill will give them ammunition to go back to their insurer and argue for a better rate,” he said.

Miles said 12 states already mandate similar disclosures, and the claims data, though extensive, is redacted of any data that could identify specific employees.

Assemblyman Ted Lieu (D-Torrance) has agreed to carry the bill in the California Assembly.

Nicole Kasabian Evans, spokeswoman for the California Association of Health Plans, said association officials were aware of the potential legislation but had not yet formulated a position on it.

“We would have to review any specific proposal, but we’re always interested in talking with our broker-partners about ways to increase quality and lower costs,” Evans said.

Abraxis Stung

Abraxis Bioscience Inc.’s cancer drug Abraxane continues to be the fastest growing cancer drug in its class, with a 13.9 percent growth rate from January 2007 to June 2008 compared to the same period last year, according to industry tracking data. The drug has gained 13 percent in market share of the metastatic breast cancer market.

Yet Abraxane sales fell 6 percent to $73.8 million in the second quarter, which combined with several one-time charges forced the Los Angeles-based biotech to report a stunning $84.1 million loss for the quarter.

Without the charges, which included litigation costs and in-process research and development charges, earnings would have been $3.6 million, in line with the company’s growth as Abraxane sales began to take off last year.

Chief Executive Patrick Soon-Shiong in a conference call with analysts last week said some orders that had been expected in the quarter were delayed.

The share price fell a little over 4 percent to $74.45 last week after the Aug. 13 earnings report.

Staff reporter Deborah Crowe can be reached [email protected] or at (323) 549-5225, ext. 232.