Just saw this today__
>>In the meantime, Withy says some of Abgenix's earlier deals are already bearing fruit. Pfizer (nyse: PFE - news - people ) has started testing two compounds in humans, although it hasn't disclosed what these experimental drugs do. Another compound, ABX-EGF, is moving through clinical trials. The drug, which is being developed with biotech giant Amgen (nasdaq: AMGN - news - people ), attacks the same target hit by ImClone's (nasdaq: IMCL - news - people ) Erbitux. The target, the epidermal growth factor (EGF), is a protein contained on the surface of cancer cells that tell them when to divide.
Abgenix and Amgen recently changed the terms of their deal in a way that gives Amgen control over the drug's final development. It's too early to tell, Withy says, whether ABX-EGF will be more effective than Erbitux. But it doesn't seem to cause an allergic reaction as often as ImClone's drug. "Whether ABX-EGF will differentiate itself based on efficacy we won't know yet," Withy says. "We can clearly differentiate the product based on safety."
"Increasingly safe drugs that can be used at high doses," he says, "are going to be the drugs of the future." <<
I don't own shares if IMCL. I did but sold out.
fred |
