Amgen Inc.

Amgen is a biotechnology powerhouse with more than 16,000 employees. The company's impressive business model is built around developing and marketing new pharmaceutical products. The process of drug discovery is notoriously fickle, and there is no such thing as a sure winner. Amgen has distinguished itself by making an unprecedented commitment to research and development. More than half of the company's total costs in any given year are research and development combined with capital spending.

A relatively young company, some of Amgen's early successes are still under patent protection. This gives the company a large lift in the competitive race to develop new treatments. Margins in the biopharmaceuticals niche are high, with $12.4 billion in revenue leading to more than $3.6 billion in net income.

Amgen is a highly profitable company that works every day for the betterment of mankind. And the company's commitment to investment dramatically increases the odds that Amgen will score big again soon. Stocks purchased on the hope of FDA approval for new drugs amount entirely to speculation. Yet the odds favor companies with many drugs under development to eventually find a winner. And Amgen knows how to play those odds.