NEW TESTING FOR ARANESP AMGEN PLANS FOR MORE USES.

Byline: Brent Hopkins Staff Writer

THOUSAND OAKS - Amgen Inc. hopes to put its multibillion-dollar drug Aranesp to work on kidney disease patients if results of a clinical trial announced Monday are positive.

The anti-anemia drug will be given to 4,000 patients with chronic kidney disease and type 2 diabetes worldwide to see whether it prevents cardiovascular problems. As the diseases weaken kidneys, anemia often crops up and puts patients at risk for potentially lethal circulatory problems.

``Most people will die before they reach dialysis or a transplant,'' said Keith Givens, Amgen's senior manager of corporate communications. ``We're trying to see if anemia management will reduce those heart attacks and strokes.''

The company has been soliciting doctors to refer patients to the trial, known as TREAT, for Trial to Reduce Cardiovascular Events with Aranesp Therapy. It expects to fill out enrollment in the next 18 months, then begin crunching data to see whether Aranesp has had any effect.

In addition to possibly saving lives, the trial boasts a financial upside for Amgen.

Aranesp brought in around $2.5 billion in revenue last year and Sena Lund, an analyst at the New York-based investment bank Cathay Financial LLC, projects that it could do as much as $3 billion in 2005.

``You can make money different ways if you convince patients and physicians that using this is beneficial,'' said Lund. ``It's not going to add billions of dollars, but from a competitive point of view, it adds credibility to Aranesp.''

Brent Hopkins, [phone]

brent.hopkins(at)dailynews.com