• 8/25/2005
  • California
  • Allison Bruce
  • Ventura County Star (venturacountystar.com)

Amgen started this year with new drug Kepivance, which received U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval at the end of 2004. Kepivance is awaiting approval for sale in the European Union.

Company spokeswoman Trish Hawkins said the drug is doing well in the U.S. market, where it is approved to treat patients with blood cancers who require a bone marrow transplant. The company is testing the drug for patients with head and neck cancer or a type of lung cancer.

Kepivance treats severe oral mucositis, a sometimes debilitating side effect in patients undergoing chemotherapy. Sometimes mouth sores become so severe patients cannot swallow their own saliva, Hawkins said. Amgen said the potential market could be 11,000 patients in the U.S.

“It’s the first and only therapy approved to treat and reduce severe oral mucositis,” she said of Kepivance. “It’s the first thing physicians have even had available to help manage mucositis.”