Amgen presents oncology programme data

Amgen has announced data from its ongoing trials in the field of oncology at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research.

The company presented results from five preclinical studies evaluating potential pre-clinical and clinical biomarkers for AMG 655, AMG 479 and AMG 102 as well as anti-tumour activity and pharmacodynamics.

Studies have been conducted in the areas of cell growth regulation and apoptosis – programmed cell death.

Among other trial results, data showed that AMG 655 enhanced apoptosis in vitro and in vivo, while AMG 478 inhibited over 80 per cent of IGF-1 induced growth activation in certain sarcoma cell line.

David Chang, vice-president of global oncology development at Amgen, said: “We are excited to be pushing the boundaries of knowledge around known oncology pathways such as apoptosis and growth regulation by exploring new and innovative approaches to attack tumour cells.”

He added that, even at this early stage, the company is happy to present a wide range of data that underlines the possibility of using recently-discovered approaches to tackle cancer.

Earlier this month, Amgen published early results for its anti-angiogenesis pipeline molecules, with it suggested that there is biologic activity across a range of tumour types.