Amgen Seeks Partner for Inflammation Research

Amgen has announced that it will seek a corporate partner for its ongoing inflammation research and development program, headquartered in Boulder, Colo., to ensure that the program’s potential is realized.

As part of the plan, Amgen’s Boulder unit will be reorganized into a stand-alone inflammation research and development company with a number of potential products in preclinical development. Three of the products have been studied in humans.

“Inflammation is a large field with tremendous opportunity and significant unmet medical needs,” said Gordon Binder, chairman and chief executive officer of the Thousand Oaks-based Amgen. “Amgen has made great strides in establishing a world-class inflammation program in Boulder. . . . Achieving maximum success for our product program in this complicated and competitive arena will require substantial additional investments in both time and resources.”

Binder said Amgen is seeking a partner to share the costs of developing inflammation products so as not to tie up all the biotech giant’s research funds in that one area.

Previously, Amgen has established corporate partnerships to share expenses, including with Kirin, Johnson & Johnson, F. Hoffmann-La Roche and Yamanouchi.