AMGEN BANKS ON `FAT' DRUG : THOUSAND OAKS COMPANY TO INVEST IN PROGENITOR'S ANTI-OBESITY EFFORTS.

Byline: Dave McNary Daily News Staff Writer

Biotechnology giant Amgen Inc. announced Monday it has agreed to spend up to $28 million on technology owned by Progenitor Inc. that eventually could lead to development of an anti-obesity pill.

The deal calls for payment of a $500,000 license fee to Progenitor, a $5.5 million investment in Progenitor stock if there is an initial public offering and $22 million in payments if Progenitor meets targets for development of such a drug.

Analysts said the move is an attempt to expand Amgen's work on the ``fat gene,'' a potentially lucrative field that could provide treatment for the more than 3 million Americans suffering from obesity. Thousand Oaks-based Amgen created a sensation in mid-1995 when it announced its fat-busting shot had led to a 30 percent reduction in body fat in lab mice although analysts have been cautioning that the drug is unlikely to become available until the year 2000.

``The announcement says to me that Amgen is willing to spend to give its most important new products the broadest possible exposure,'' said Joyce Lonegran, an analyst with Cowen & Co. ``The company is also showing that it's willing to spend to invest in outside companies.''

Amgen, the world's largest biotech company, has been working to expand its product line beyond its flagship products, red-cell booster epogen and white-cell stimulant neupogen with more than $2 billion in annual sales. It paid Rockefeller University $20 million in 1995 for licensing rights to the obesity gene, which is believed to control the body's storage of fat.

David Molowa, an analyst with Bear Stearns, said the deal with Progenitor is consistent with Amgen's interest in obesity reduction. ``It's also a natural progression in hopes of developing an orally administered drug rather than a shot,'' he said.

Molowa also advised patience to those hoping for an anti-fat injection or pill that will melt pounds away.

``The whole area of obesity research is a high-risk, high-return field, without a doubt,'' he said. ``Amgen has as good a shot as anybody, if not better.''

Lonegran and Molowa said the outlook for Amgen's anti-fat drugs should become clearer later this year. ``They're in the very early stages of human trials, and I expect them to have some news on that in the second quarter,'' Molowa said.

Under the terms of the agreement, Amgen will gain an exclusive worldwide license to develop and commercialize Progenitor's technology for diagnosis, prevention and therapy.

``This agreement confirms Amgen's commitment to develop effective treatments for severe obesity, based on a thorough understanding of its biology,'' said Gordon Binder, Amgen's chairman and chief executive officer.

Amgen is in a race with Swiss drug giant Hoffman La Roche Inc. and partner Millennium Pharmaceuticals to develop an anti-obesity drug.

Amgen has been using a genetically altered version of leptin, a hormone believed to control obesity and metabolism, and was able to use it to lower the appetite and normalize the metabolism of lab mice. It started human trials of the drug last May.

Leptin is produced by fat cells. Progenitor, of Columbus, Ohio, specializes in work with receptor proteins that trigger the formation of the hormone.

Progenitor, which is majority-owned by Interneuron Pharmaceuticals Inc. and has about 25 employees, recently reported research indicating that leptin receptors also could be involved in the formation of blood and immune cells from bone marrow. That could mean a variety of other applications for a genetically engineered version of leptin.