Amgen, the world’s largest biotech company, which has operations in Seattle and Cambridge, MA, said today that its drug for colorectal cancer slowed the spread of tumors for patients with a certain genetic profile, in a clinical trial of 1,186 patients. Despite slowing down tumors, the drug failed to show that translated into helping patients live longer. Still, it’s the second major prospective trial to suggest Amgen’s panitumumab (Vectibix) may work for patients with normal forms of the KRAS gene, and offer no benefit for patients with a more aggressive, mutated gene.
Author: Luke Timmerman
Luke is an award-winning journalist specializing in life sciences. He has served as national biotechnology editor for Xconomy and national biotechnology reporter for Bloomberg News. Luke got started covering life sciences at The Seattle Times, where he was the lead reporter on an investigation of doctors who leaked confidential information about clinical trials to investors. The story won the Scripps Howard National Journalism Award and several other national prizes. Luke holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and during the 2005-2006 academic year, he was a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT.
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