Amgen's drug pipeline Most biotech drugs so far have been large complex organic compounds. Roger Perlmutter is leading Amgen in a new direction for biotech—toward small molecule products. The first through the pipeline is Sensipar, which Amgen licensed from a small company called NPS. Sensipar is designed to control the production of a hormone in patients undergoing dialysis for kidney failure by helping to maintain the electrolyte balance in the blood. Some of the other Amgen products on the market now or undergoing testing include Aranesp, a relative of their highly successful anti-anemia drug Epogen. It’s used to treat anemia associated with chronic renal failure and for some cancer patients with chemotherapy- induced anemias. Neulasta (pegfilgrastim) is a protein that stimulates production of white blood cells. It is used to decrease the risk of infection in patients with most types of cancer while they are receiving cancer chemotherapy. Kineret (anakinra) is used to treat the symptoms of moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis by reducing the actions of chemicals in the body involved in inflammatory and immune responses. Before a drug can be released on the U.S. market, the Food and Drug Administration requires three levels of testing. Phase I trials test for safety and to see how they are absorbed and dealt with by the body. Phase II clinical trials assess the effectiveness of the candidate drug. In Phase III, a large number of patients are included to confirm the effectiveness and to look for adverse side effects. To read about these and other biotech drugs that Amgen has developed, visit www.amgen.com. |
”When Roger was with me as a post-doc he did interesting science, but he also taught a series of mini-courses on the interface of biology and medicine, which the students loved,” recalls Hood. “That’s when I first began to see that he was a broad, multi-talented individual.” Eventually Hood helped Perlmutter land a position at the University of Washington in
Seattle in 1984. Before the rise of molecular biology, the drug industry’s discovery process was dominated by chemistry, according to Perlmutter. Most pharmaceutical development progressed by searching for compounds that animal testing showed might have beneficial effects on humans. Successes were few and far between. “Many diseases,” he wrote in 2001, “were just too complex to be studied usefully in such a manner.” With biochemists and molecular biologists taking a lead role in the labs, Perlmutter explains, the emphasis shifted to uncovering fundamental mechanisms of disease pathogenesis that could be interdicted using synthetic chemistry. More recently, molecular biologists have developed new therapies by exploiting the molecules synthesized by normal human cells. |
Several years later Perlmutter returned the favor, playing a pivotal
role in recruiting Hood to UW, where he became known for his efforts in shaping the university’s
biotechnology programs. In 1997, Perlmutter left the University of Washington to pursue
drug discovery in earnest as an executive at the Merck Research Laboratories.