Amgen's new Drugs

Amgen is a core holding in Vestact US portfolios. It is one of the world's leading biotechnology companies, and it closed at a lifetime high of $207.21 last night, giving it a market capitalisation of $134 billion.

It has a portfolio of drugs in production and as well as new ones in development. It's areas of focus are cardiovascular disease, oncology, bone health, neuroscience, nephrology and inflammation.

One of its new cancer drugs in trial is code-named AMG 420. Sounds like a new model of Mercedes Benz!? It is actually an experimental treatment for Myeloma, which is cancer of the blood plasma. It's an anti-BCMA agent, working on the B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA) to activate the body's auto-immune response. In other words, its BiTEs (Bi-specific T-cell engagers) direct the host's T cells to attack the cancer cells.

Anyway, Amgen's AMG 420 is undergoing detailed clinical testing, and the BiTE study has been delivering encouraging results. The findings were presented at a Myeloma conference, to much acclaim. As you can imagine, finding a treatment which works to delay or reverse cancer is hugely significant.

If you can handle lots of medical acronyms, click here to read more on the Pharma website EndPoints