Amgen scholars meet for drug symposium

Amgen has announced that 250 of its scholars from ten top universities have met for a national summer symposium to explore drug discovery and development.

The company said this meeting of undergraduate students at the University of California in Los Angeles offered scholars the chance to meet top leading scientists as well as their peers to discuss their hands-on summer research projects.

From July 19th-21st at the second annual Amgen Scholars National Symposium, students sought to gain insight into how scientific research can feed in to the discovery and development of key drugs for patients.

The event was hosted by the Amgen Foundation in partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is a component of the $25 million (12.5 million pounds) Amgen Scholars Programme.

Kevin Sharer, chairman and chief executive officer of Amgen, said: “I am proud of the Amgen Foundation’s leadership in advancing science education through its investment in the Amgen Scholars Program.”

He added that this research programme can help undergraduate students prepare to be leaders in innovation and science.

Last week, Amgen announced positive top-line results from a phase III clinical trial of denosumab as a treatment for bone loss in non-metastatic prostate cancer patients undergoing androgen deprivation therapy.