Bone Study Cause Amegen Shares To Rise
A positive bone study has shares of Amgen Inc., The Thousands Oaks, CA, on the rise with gains of 13.8 percent in premarketing trading. The company, based in The Thousand Oaks, CA reported that its drug denosumab has been referred to on Wall Street as a winner and the type of product that will create new revenue in an economy that sorely needs a boost.
The feedback from the study has been excellent. It involves 2,049 patients, and accompanies a former clinical trial studies done on postmenopausal women which also showed promise. Amegen will now go to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for approval using both studies as indicators. The company hopes to have a decision regarding their marketing application by October 2009.
The study indicates that denosumab reduces or retards many complications in breast cancer patients, mainly metastases to a woman’s bones. It is a huge source of hope for many women struggling with breast cancer in advanced stages. The complications arising from complications often involve spread to the bones. In fact, the rate of incidence is reported as great as 75%. When cancer does spread to the bone, it weakens and kills the bone which is near to the tumor mass resulting in major additional complications dealing with the bone.
There are some concerns that Amgen has not provided sufficient data regarding safety. One side effect of most osteoporosis drugs is osteonecrosis of the jaw, which cuts off blood flow and weakens the bone in that area. However, company officials believe that the superiority of denosumab will override any concerns regarding the possibility of side effects. Amgen officers believe that there is a very positive reward over risk for patients prescribed the drug, which has outperformed its competitor Zometa, made by Novartis AG, also used in the study.
A leading human therapeutics company, Amgen has been part of the biotechnology industry for over 25 years.
In addition to the success of denosumab, the company has led the way in developing advances in recombinant DNA and molecular biology and has introduced many drugs, benefiting millions of people all over the world who are living with and being treated for serious diseases. To learn more about Amgen go to www.amgen.com
