Amgen tumor-starving drug gets spotlight

By Ransdell Pierson

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Amgen's head of oncology research said on Tuesday that one of the company's experimental drugs now in mid-stage trials has big potential to better starve tumors of their blood supply when used with standard medicines.

"It's new, we're ahead of the field and it has potential in a number of tumor types," Glenn Begley said at the Reuters Health Summit, calling the AMG 386 drug one of Amgen's most promising oncology products.

"What we're trying to achieve is not incremental," Begley said. "We want to make a difference; we want to have substantial benefit" in further controlling cancer.

Amgen, which aims to become a far bigger player in the oncology field, has tested AMG 386 in combination with drugs that use two related mechanisms to block growth of blood vessels that feed tumors -- including Genentech Inc's Avastin, and Nexavar sold by Bayer AG and Onyx Pharmaceuticals.

It also is testing AMG 386 with motesanib (AMG 706), an experimental Amgen treatment also meant to deprive tumors of blood nutrients.

Begley said AMG 386, which blocks development of blood vessels, is now in mid-stage trials while rival drugs in the same new class are either in phase 1 or preclinical stages of testing.

The drug could prove successful against a wide range of cancers because it attacks a mechanism common to all solid tumors, particularly when combined with other treatments, Begley said.

AMG 386 helps block blood vessel formation by binding so-called angiopoietins 1 and 2. Drugs such as Avastin, motesanib, Nexavar and Pfizer Inc's (PFE.N) Sutent inhibit a protein called VEGF, or receptors to the protein.

It has been difficult to safely combine some anti-VEGF medicines because of severe heart side effects and anemia when used together.

In preclinical studies, AMG 386 appears to have increased tumor-fighting results when used in combination with Avastin or motesanib.

In early stage human trials involving patients with advanced solid tumors, the highest number of patients whose tumor growth was controlled was seen when AGM 386 was combined with Avastin.

"AMG 386 may have high potential in combination" with anti-VEGF and anti VEGF-receptor medicines, Natixis Bleichroeder analyst Alex To said in a recent research note.

"If the efficacy holds up in human cancer patients, safety will be the next critical issue whether or not the combination will hold up," To said.

Wall Street expects AMG 386, if approved, to help assure competitive earnings growth for the world's biggest biotechnology company, whose profits have been hurt by declining sales of its top-selling anemia drug.

(Reporting by Ransdell Pierson; Editing by Brian Moss and Carol Bishopric)