Added Neupogen Use With Marrow Transplants OKd

Amgen Inc., a Thousand Oaks biotechnology concern, said its big-selling drug Neupogen has been cleared by the U. S. Food and Drug Administration for additional use with bone-marrow transplant patients.

Many chemotherapy drugs kill healthy cells in patients’ bone marrow, increasing the risk of serious infection. Bone-marrow transplants enable patients to receive higher doses of chemotherapy, if needed, while Neupogen can speed the body’s production of infection-fighting white blood cells.

Neupogen has been widely used for several years to help combat a variety of infections.

There are 8,000 to 10,000 bone-marrow transplants in the United States each year.