New York, March 3, 2026, 13:41 ET — Regular session
Amgen Inc shares fell $8.69, or 2.3%, to $377.01 at 1:41 p.m. ET on Tuesday after Japan’s Kyowa Kirin said it was discontinuing all ongoing trials of its experimental drug rocatinlimab. Kyowa Kirin had earlier ended a development and commercialization tie-up on rocatinlimab with Amgen. 1
The drop matters because pipeline headlines still set the tone for big drugmakers that are priced like safe havens. When the news is about safety, it can land harder.
Amgen has been trying to keep investor focus on newer medicines and late-stage programs that could carry growth as older franchises run into tougher pricing and copycat competition.
Kyowa Kirin said a planned safety update identified emerging concerns of malignancies, including one new confirmed case and one suspected case of Kaposi’s sarcoma, a rare cancer, on top of a prior confirmed case. It said the pattern suggested a possible link to how the drug works and concluded, with Amgen, that the potential risks may outweigh the benefits across the studied patient groups. “This is deeply disappointing news, as we had hoped to bring a safe and effective treatment to patients,” Abdul Mullick, Kyowa Kirin’s president and chief operating officer, said. 2
The slide left Amgen trailing broader healthcare moves. The Health Care Select Sector SPDR Fund and the SPDR S&P Biotech ETF were down about 1.3% each, while the SPDR S&P 500 ETF slipped about 1%. Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk and Regeneron were also lower in afternoon trade.
At the TD Cowen health care conference on Monday, Amgen executives called 2026 a “disciplined data year” and reminded investors that “Q1 is lighter for us relative to subsequent quarters” because of U.S. insurance resets and higher patient co-pays. They also flagged European generic entry for Otezla and expected faster erosion for Prolia and Xgeva as biosimilar rivals — near-copies of complex biologic drugs — expand. 3
But investors will have to work out whether Tuesday’s safety news stays contained, or drags into broader doubt about immune targets. That’s the downside case: more questions, more time, and less patience for the long-dated parts of the pipeline.
The tape isn’t helping. Healthcare has traded like a defensive pocket at times, but it has also been tossed around with the wider market, which can stretch single-stock moves beyond the immediate news.
Traders will be looking for follow-up disclosure on rocatinlimab once the companies finish their assessment, and for Amgen’s next quarterly results, expected around April 29. Guidance and timing on key pipeline readouts will likely matter more than day-to-day swings in the broader market. 4
