Goldman Sachs Reviews Biotech: Amgen, Celgene and Clovis Oncology

Ahead of the May 29th American Society of Clinical Oncology conference, analysts at Goldman Sachs reviewed the outlook for some of biotech's hottest names: Amgen, Inc. AMGN, Celgene Corporation CELG and Clovis Oncology Inc CLVS. Goldman has Buy ratings on both Amgen and Clovis, while placing a Sell rating on Celgene.

At the ASCO conference, Goldman said it will be watching Amgen's Phase III myeloma drug, Kyprolis, and its generic competitor, Velcade. Specifically, Goldman will look at "incremental details of safety/tolerability vs. Velcade," as well as whether Amgen will be able to improve Kyprolis' dosing, currently at twice a week, to match Velcade's once-a-week dosing.

Clovis Oncology will present updated lung cancer data, according to Goldman's outlook. The analysts said they would like to see how certain lung cancer patients react to Clovis' Roci lung cancer data. Depending how the results play out, Goldman said that it could be an important point of differentiation between the Roci data and AstraZeneca plc's AZN competitor, AZD9291.

Goldman also previewed Celgene's presentation, which it said would focus on an accelerated timeline for its lymphoma drug's, Revlimid, Phase III trial. However, Goldman said that that announcement in and of itself would not be a "meaningful catalyst."

Ahead of the conference, Goldman said that presentations will be posted online on May 13 at 5 p.m. ET.

This year, Clovis Oncology has outperformed Celgene and Amgen by large margins. Clovis gained 42.4 percent as of Tuesday's closing price of $79.72; Amgen was flat at $159.44; and Celgene fell 3.9 percent.