By Deena Beasley and Bill Berkrot
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Biotechnology company Amgen Inc (AMGN.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) will be "opportunistic" in licensing or acquiring new cancer drug candidates, but it sees little right now to tempt it, said Glenn Begley, head of hematology and oncology research at Amgen.
"A lot of the opportunities that we look at just don't stack up relative to the existing opportunities that we have," he said at the Reuters Health Summit in New York on Tuesday.
Begley also said he is "very enthusiastic" about the prospects for Amgen's experimental bone drug denosumab as a treatment for bone loss in cancer patients.
Oncology is the fastest-growing section of the global pharmaceuticals market, with sales expected to increase by 15 to 16 percent in 2009, against just 4.5 to 5.5 percent for the drugs market as a whole, according to IMS Health.
Many large pharmaceutical companies, including Pfizer Inc (PFE.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), have announced plans to become more involved in oncology and are looking at smaller biotechs for new drug candidates.
Amgen has a large internal pipeline, but it still has its eye on cancer research elsewhere.
"We are actively surveying the world to make sure that we don't miss opportunities and we are not arrogant enough to believe that we've got it all mastered," Begley said.
"HURDLE IS HIGH"
"We will absolutely be opportunistic ... But the hurdle is high for us to bring a molecule internally, because we're constantly ranking it against the molecules that we've already got. If we saw something that we really thought was promising, we would bring it in."
Begley said there are at least 750 molecules in oncology clinical development worldwide. "Although success rates are going up, I expect that many of those will fail. That's disappointing," he said, "but I think most of them will fail."
Amgen will release pivotal-stage trial results next year for bone drug denosumab as a treatment for cancer patients. The drug has already demonstrated impressive results as a once-every-six-months treatment for osteoporosis in post-menopausal women.
"We are very enthusiastic about the opportunity denosumab presents," Begley said, noting that the drug has the potential to prevent bone loss in patients undergoing treatment for cancer, including prostate cancer.
He said Amgen views both cancer and osteoporosis as potentially significant markets for denosumab, noting that the cancer data will determine whether the company will emphasize sales in one therapeutic area over the other.
Begley also said Amgen has no plans at this time to develop a form of the drug that patients would be able to inject themselves.
Amgen is also scheduled to unveil Phase 3 trial results next year for multi-kinase inhibitor motesanib and important mid-stage data that should better indicate the potential of cancer drug candidates for which Amgen has high hopes, including AMG 386, AMG 655 and AMG 951, which is a joint venture with Genentech Inc (DNA.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz). Continued...
© Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved.
| Aerospace and Defense | Dec 15 - 17, 2008 | Aerospace/Defense |
| Investment Outlook | Dec 08 - 11, 2008 | Financial Services / Exchanges |
| Media | Dec 01 - 4, 2008 | Media/Tech/Telco |
| India Investment | Nov 24 - 26, 2008 | Country Summits |
| Health | Nov 17 - 20, 2008 | Health |
