COURT: AMGEN WITHIN RIGHTS TO DENY DRUG.

Byline: Brent Hopkins Staff Writer

THOUSAND OAKS - A federal judge handed Amgen Inc. a victory, ruling this week that the company does not have to continue to provide a Parkinson's drug to a pair of former trial participants.

The biotech company has been fighting with two former patients since April, when they filed suit to force the drugmaker to keep giving them the drug known as GDNF. Judge Kevin P. Castel of the U.S. District Court in Manhattan ruled late Monday that Amgen had no obligation to supply the drug, since patients had signed forms acknowledging its right to terminate the trials last September.

``We have enormous respect for the people who participated in the trial and share their disappointment,'' Amgen spokeswoman Andrea Rothschild said Tuesday. ``But we feel that this is the right decision for patient safety. We were very excited about the trial at first and it was a very hard decision to suspend access to GDNF. It was not a decision that was taken lightly.''

Amgen halted tests of GDNF, shorthand for glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor drug, on 48 patients last year after more than a year of tests. Saying trials showed no meaningful improvement for patients and could potentially lead to harmful side effects, the biotech firm encouraged patients to pursue other therapies to confront the disease.

Alan Milstein, the lawyer representing both Robert Suthers, a 70-year- old retiree from Greenlawn, N.Y. and Niwana Martin, of Harpers Ferry, W.Va, pledged Tuesday to appeal the decision swiftly.

``We're certainly not giving up with these peoples' lives at stake,'' Milstein said. ``Everyone knows the right thing to do is to give the people the drug, so we just have to explore other ways to get it to them.''

Brent Hopkins, [phone]

brent.hopkins(at)dailynews.com