Amgen Revives Defunct Drug as Old Therapies Seek New Cure
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Amgen Inc.’s experimental drug rilotumumab, set aside by the company after it disappointed in a study, has been revived after a fresh look at data in gastric cancer found it helped a group of patients.
Rilotumumab used with chemotherapy almost doubled the survival rate for patients with high levels of c-Met, a protein linked to cancer growth, Thousand Oaks, California-based Amgen said yesterday in a statement. The data, released in advance of the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting that starts June 1 in Chicago, have spurred the company to pursue a late-stage trial of the drug, said David Chang, Amgen’s vice president of oncology development.