Amgen to present cancer drug data at conference

Amgen is to present new research on one of its cancer drugs at a healthcare conference later this month.

The pharmaceutical company will attend the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) 101st Annual Meeting 2010 to discuss results from the biomarker analysis of colorectal cancer treatment Vectibix.

This drug has been approved in Europe as a monotherapy for the disease since 2007, with the new phase III trial aiming to establish the way in which certain gene mutations affect the performance of the treatment.

Dr Roger M. Perlmutter, executive vice-president of research and development at Amgen, said: “The data presented at AACR highlights the important scientific advances that are being made in cancer research.”

The company currently has a total of 16 compounds in its oncology pipeline at varying stages of clinical development.

Earlier this year, Amgen published clinical trial data on its new prostate cancer treatment denosumab, which demonstrated its advantages over the alternative treatment Zometa.