JOURNAL CITES AMGEN DRUG SENSIPAR TREATS DIALYSIS EFFECTS.Byline: Gregory J. Wilcox Staff WriterTHOUSAND OAKS - A drug marketed by Amgen Inc., the world's largest biotechnology concern, proved successful in treating bone pain and other side effects of dialysis, according to an article in today's New England Journal of Medicine The New England Journal of Medicine (New Engl J Med or NEJM) is an English-language peer-reviewed medical journal published by the Massachusetts Medical Society. It is one of the most popular and widely-read peer-reviewed general medical journals in the world. . The article follows the March 8 U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval of the drug, Sensipar. The Thousand Oaks-based company funded the research, led by Dr. Geoffrey Alan Block, director of the Division of Clinical Research at Denver Nephrologists. Amgen licensed Sensipar from NPS NPS National Park Service NPS Naval Postgraduate School NPS Net Promoter Score (customer management) NPS Non-Point Source pollution NPS Native Plant Society NPS Norfolk Public Schools (Virginia) Pharmaceuticals in 1996 and filed for 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 in September 2003. Analyst Dennis R. Harp at Deutsche Bank North American in New York said the journal article is more good news for Amgen because it can be used in advertising and left with doctors who are likely to prescribe the drug. ``Publication in a peer review journal is important for the marketing of the product and for physicians to become aware and familiar with it,'' he said. Amgen did not offer any sales expectations. About 300,000 patients receive dialysis annually in the United States and many of them eventually develop a condition called secondary hyperparathyroidism (HPT HPT Human Performance Technology HPT Hyperparathyroidism HPT Heartland Poker Tour HPT Home Pregnancy Test HPT High Pressure Turbine HPT Host Print Transform HPT High-Performance Team HPT high-payoff target (US DoD) ), said spokeswoman Kelly Stoddard. It leads to bone pain, disease, fractures and vascular and soft-tissue calcification calcification /cal·ci·fi·ca·tion/ (kal?si-fi-ka´shun) the deposit of calcium salts in a tissue. dystrophic calcification . Block's research showed that Sensipar, Amgen's drug in pill form, is effective in treating the condition and can reverse the symptoms, which if not treated can be debilitating de·bil·i·tat·ing adj. Causing a loss of strength or energy. Debilitating Weakening, or reducing the strength of. Mentioned in: Stress Reduction . Analyst Christopher Raymond at Robert W. Baird Robert Wilson Baird (born April 1, 1883) helped found the financial services firm that bears his name and led it for more than 40 years. Baird’s father was a professor of Greek literature at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, where Baird grew up. & Co. in Milwaukee said news of the drug's success surfaced last November and that sales should eventually be relatively strong. ``In the overall scheme of things for Amgen it's not a big number (initially) but it could probably be a half-a-billion drug at some point,'' he said. Gregory J. Wilcox, (818) 713-3743 greg.wilcox(at)dailynews.com |
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