Press Release Details

Thousand Oaks, Calif. – September 3, 2003 – The Amgen Foundation today announced that it gave $8 million in grants to nonprofit organizations nationwide in 2002. The Amgen Foundation, created in 1991, focuses its giving in three areas: health and medicine, science education, and the community.

The Amgen Foundation has developed two notable signature programs: a $3 million gift for the Amgen Center for Science Learning at the California Science Center in Los Angeles, and a $3 million contribution to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Conejo and Las Virgenes in Ventura County, California to build six new clubs in the region.

Out of the $8 million given in 2002, $1.6 million supported the Amgen Foundation's Matching Gift program that matched dollar-for-dollar staff members' contributions for a combined total of $3.2 million giving to worthwhile causes in the areas of health and social services, education, the arts, and the environment.

“We are proud of the generosity of our Amgen staff members throughout the country giving $1.6 million of their own personal resources to philanthropic causes of their choice,” said Marie Kennedy, Vice President, Corporate Communications, Amgen, and President of the Amgen Foundation.

The program, which has steadily grown since its inception in 1992, matches employee gifts ranging from $50 to $20,000 a year per staff member to qualifying nonprofit organizations and is one of the largest among pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies nationwide. It was designed to allow Amgen staff to personally direct Amgen Foundation funds to causes to which they themselves are dedicated.

For more information on the Amgen Foundation, visit www.amgen.com. Amgen is a global biotechnology company that discovers, develops, manufactures and markets important human therapeutics based on advances in cellular and molecular biology.

CONTACT: Amgen, Thousand Oaks
Marie Kennedy, (805) 447-0229 (Media)