Biotech, Drugs, cancer

Amgen Trial Shows Mixed Result

Luke Timmerman 8/17/09

Amgen, the world’s largest biotech company, which has operations in Seattle and Cambridge, MA, said today that its drug for colorectal cancer slowed the spread of tumors for patients with a certain genetic profile, in a clinical trial of 1,186 patients. Despite slowing down tumors, the drug failed to show that translated into helping patients live longer. Still, it’s the second major prospective trial to suggest Amgen’s panitumumab (Vectibix) may work for patients with normal forms of the KRAS gene, and offer no benefit for patients with a more aggressive, mutated gene.

Luke Timmerman is the National Biotechnology Editor for Xconomy. You can e-mail him at ltimmerman@xconomy.com, call 206-624-2374, or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ldtimmerman.