FDA APPROVES AMGEN DRUG; INFERGEN OK'D AS HEPATITIS TREATMENT.Byline: Ben Sullivan Daily News Staff Writer Thousand Oaks-based Amgen Inc. said Tuesday it has received U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval to market its third drug, Infergen, a compound for treating hepatitis C Hepatitis C Definition Hepatitis C is a form of liver inflammation that causes primarily a long-lasting (chronic) disease. Acute (newly developed) hepatitis C is rarely observed as the early disease is generally quite mild. . Amgen shares rose $1.75 on the news to close at $49.43. Infergen is an artificially derived form of interferon interferon (ĭn'tərfēr`ŏn), any of a group of proteins produced by cells in the body in response to an attack by a virus. A cell infected by a virus releases minute amounts of interferons, which attach themselves to neighboring cells, , a protein that inhibits the growth of viruses. The Amgen drug joins two existing hepatitus C products marketed by competitors Schering Plough Corp. and Roche Holding AG for what last year was a $140 million market. For Amgen, the FDA FDA abbr. Food and Drug Administration FDA, n.pr See Food and Drug Administration. FDA, n.pr the abbreviation for the Food and Drug Administration. approval carries arguably ar·gu·a·ble adj. 1. Open to argument: an arguable question, still unresolved. 2. That can be argued plausibly; defensible in argument: three arguable points of law. more symbolic than financial importance. ``This is the product that takes us from a two-product company to a multi-product company,'' said Amgen spokesman David Kaye David V. Hope (born 14 October 1964), known professionaly as David Kaye, is a Canadian actor who is better known and revered for his work as a voice actor. Career . Unlike Amgen's two other drugs, Epogen and Neupogen, which were launched with no competition, ``this is more of a normal drug'' in that competing products already exist, Kaye said. Amgen hopes Infergen will quickly grab a large share of the hepatitis C market, but Kaye acknowledged that it will not match sales of either Epogen and Neupogen, which together generated about $2 billion last year. Hepatitis C is a cousin to the better-known hepatitis A Hepatitis A Definition Hepatitis A is an inflammation of the liver caused by a virus, the hepatitis A virus (HAV). It varies in severity, running an acute course, generally starting within two to six weeks after contact with the virus, and lasting no and B strains and infects an estimated 4 million Americans. That represents a potentially lucrative market, considering that a year's treatment for hepatitis C with existing drugs runs around $4,500. But because the virus usually produces no symptoms in a person until several years after they've been exposed, most carriers are unaware they are infected. |
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