Amgen Inc. (AMGN) announced during the 3Q-2019 earnings call conference on 10/29/2019, its exit from the neurosciences research and early development programs. The company's head of research and development, David Reese stated:

The company saw success with aimovig for migraine patients, but its study of a late-stage candidate in Alzheimer's disease in partnership with Novartis (NVS) was halted a few months back. In response to a caller's question about the neuroscience decision, David said that the company was looking at alternative models to maintain a hand in the neuroscience segment. It could potentially be with venture capital or maybe academic institutions. The company's CEO, Bob Bradway added that Amgen would capitalize on the insights from its work with deCODE in human genome sequencing. Amgen's R&D cost-cutting could be an indirect effect of its product price restructuring strategy following the results of such exercise with repatha, and aimovig, which are now available at "relatively affordable co-pay levels." According to unconfirmed reports, there will be 180 layoffs across the company, with the highest impact being at Cambridge, MA location.

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