Amgen Halts Development of Cancer Drug

Amgen Inc. said it ended development of a cancer drug after the compound caused some patients to contract the ailment it was designed to treat. The drug was being tested as a treatment for low platelet count in cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. Amgen said last month that the drug’s application for use in bone-marrow transplant patients was in the last of the three testing stages required to seek Food and Drug Administration approval. Thousand Oaks-based Amgen last month discontinued a test of the same drug, megakaryocyte growth development factor, or MGDF, in healthy subjects to see whether it could make them better able to donate a key blood component. Analysts had expected the drug to have annual sales of about $200 million. The company had been expected to file with the FDA in 1999 and start selling the drug in 2000. South San Francisco-based Genentech Inc. is developing a compound similar to MGDF. “We’re absolutely enthusiastically going forward with this,” Genentech spokeswoman Laura Leber said. Amgen shares closed up $1.50 at $72.50 on Nasdaq.