Amgen gets sought-after FDA approval

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By Staff Report / Thursday, November 18th, 2010 / Comments Off on Amgen gets sought-after FDA approval

The Food and Drug Administration has approved the use of Amgen’s bone drug denosumab in patients with certain types of cancer, Amgen announced Nov. 18.

[wikichart align=”right” ticker=”AMGN” showannotations=”true” livequote=”true” rollingdate=”6 months” width=”300″ height=”245″]The Food and Drug Administration has approved the use of Amgen’s bone drug denosumab in patients with certain types of cancer, Amgen announced Nov. 18.

Thousand Oaks-based Amgen is counting on denosumab — which will be sold under the brand name Xgeva — as the company’s newest blockbuster. The FDA approval may add $1.9 billion to denosumab’s sales and push the drug’s revenue to $2.4 billion by 2015, Yaron Werber, a Citigroup analyst in New York, told Bloomberg News.

Denosumab’s initial FDA approval was for women with osteoporosis. With the new approval, the drug can be prescribed to cancer patients who suffer from fractures because of bone metastases from solid tumors, Amgen said in a company news release.