PETA members protest Amgen’s use of animals to test drugs.

THE PROVIDENCE JOURNAL / Bill Murphy Bill Murphy

PROVIDENCE — Kevin Sharer, the president and chief executive officer of Amgen Inc., based in Thousand Oaks, Calif., said he was happy to be in Providence yesterday, moderating Amgen’s first annual meeting held in Rhode Island in his company’s 27-year history.

But that was before he invited questions from investors.

Several shareholders challenged Sharer over recent negative publicity, including a front-page story in the New York Times about payments given by Amgen to doctors for prescribing its anemia medication. Overall, one investor said, Amgen is enduring “truly horrible press.”

Sharer was also peppered with questions about his pay and about Amgen’s sagging stock price, down about 20 percent over the past two years.

“Did you break a mirror or something?” one stockholder inquired.

Sharer had apparently anticipated the grumbling. In his presentation at The Westin Providence, he acknowledged that Amgen, the world’s largest biotechnology company, has hit a rough patch.

New studies have raised questions about the effectiveness of some uses of Amgen’s highly profitable anemia drugs, Aranesp and Epogen. Growth in sales of Enbrel, produced in West Greenwich, has slowed. And a rival drugmaker, Switzerland-based Roche, is preparing to launch a competing anemia drug, Cera, despite a patent infringement lawsuit Amgen filed in federal court in Boston.

“It’s been a disappointing performance,” Sharer said of the company’s stock, saddled with an “uncertainty discount” due to challenges in the anemia sector. “That’s not something we’re happy about.”

“It seems in the public company world you go through cycles,” he added. “We’re managing through a difficult situation right now.”

In addition to the questioning, Sharer faced two unwelcome shareholder proposals yesterday.

The first, sponsored by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, called on the company to adopt an animal-welfare policy and post it on its Web site, amgen.com

Outside the hotel, a PETA volunteer donned a monkey mask and prison uniform and crouched in a makeshift cage with a sign that read, “Amgen tortures animals.” Inside, PETA member Dr. Samantha Dozier said mistreatment of animal test subjects could taint laboratory results and result in “scandals” damaging Amgen’s image.

“Our company should be an industry leader with respect to animal welfare issues,” PETA said in a proxy statement, “yet it has no publicly available animal-welfare policy and is therefore below the industry standard.”

The Calvert Group, managers of so-called socially responsible mutual funds, sponsored a resolution asking Amgen to issue a “sustainability report” detailing its efforts at environmental stewardship, positive labor relations and attempts to foster “long-term social well being.”

In 2005, there were 2,045 companies globally that issued sustainability reports, according to a proxy statement by the Calvert Group. The policy, Calvert social research analyst Mike Lombardo said at yesterday’s meeting, “makes good financial sense.”

The Amgen directors opposed both proposals.

In a statement, Amgen called the PETA request “unnecessary,” saying the company already has a policy that guarantees humane treatment of animals. Amgen, whenever possible, relies on non-animal testing, the statement said.

“Amgen does support the principal of animal welfare protection,” Sharer said after Dozier’s remarks.

The requested sustainability report is also superfluous, Amgen’s statement argued, because the company has already committed to protecting the environment, supporting its employees and aiding the communities in which they work and live.

Despite the lagging stock price, investors strongly backed Amgen’s leadership at the meeting. PETA’s proposal garnered only 5 percent of the vote. The Calvert resolution received about 10 percent.

Shareholders reelected board members Frank J. Biondi Jr., 62, Jerry D. Choate, 68, Frank C. Herringer, 64, and Gilbert S. Omenn, 65, giving each director at least 96.5 percent of the vote.

Investors also supported an amendment limiting the term of the company’s 10 directors to one year. Current members serve staggered, three-year terms.

“We have tried to be transparent and in keeping with good governance,” Amgen spokesman David Polk said in an interview.

Even for large companies, annual meetings can be quick, uneventful affairs. When Textron Inc. shareholders gathered in the Westin last month, for example, the meeting lasted just half an hour. Lewis B. Campbell, the chairman, president and chief executive officer of the $11-billion conglomerate, was not asked a single question. (The company held its meeting six days after its stock reached an all-time high following strong first-quarter earnings.)

Sharer’s reception in Rhode Island was somewhat less congenial. But he did not seem to mind, saying he was “happy to be in Providence,” and praising the managers of the West Greenwich plant.

Every other year, Amgen executives leave California to hold the annual meeting near one of their research or production facilities. This is the first year the company has come to Rhode Island, where it has invested $1.5 billion since 2002.

“We’re really proud of the work our colleagues do in Rhode Island,” Sharer said, singling out Kimball Hall, the head of Amgen’s Rhode Island operations. “She runs the best factory in the Amgen system.”

bgedan@projo.com