Girding for a marketplace battle in oncology, Amgen Inc. offered encouraging data regarding its anemia product Aranesp (darbepoetin alfa), approved in September for dialysis and nondialysis patients with chronic liver failure and already being used off-label for cancer patients. (BioWorld Today)
With both sides still out for blood in the battle over their respective anti-anemia erythropoietin products, Transkaryotic Therapies Inc. (which won European approval in March for Dynepo) and Amgen Inc. (guarding the franchise it has, through the blockbuster Epogen) matched lawyers two weeks ago in an appeals hearing that offered few revelations. (BioWorld Financial Watch)
Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. said collaborator GlaxoSmithKline plc is likely to file for approval of the HIV protease inhibitor GW433908 - which last month entered its third pivotal Phase III trial - by the end of the year in the U.S. and Europe. (BioWorld Today)
The failure early this month of Ribozyme Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s Angiozyme in a Phase II trial as a monotherapy against Stage IV metastatic breast cancer was enough to feed another round in the sporadic, ongoing debate over angiogenesis inhibitors. (BioWorld Financial Watch)
