Amgen's Stomach Cancer Drug Acquired in Five Prime Buyout Extends Patients' Lives, Mid-Stage Study Shows
Amgen Inc (NASDAQ: AMGN) has announced updated results for investigational bemarituzumab combined with chemotherapy from the Phase 2 FIGHT trial in patients with FGFR2b-positive, HER2-negative frontline advanced gastric or gastroesophageal junction cancers (GEJ).
Bemarituzumab is the crown jewel of the Five Prime Therapeutics $1.9 billion buyout, which showed the treatment helped patients with advanced stomach cancer live longer.
Patients taking the treatment and a chemotherapy combination lived a median of 19.2 months, compared to 13.5 months for the patients who took chemotherapy plus placebo.
Bemarituzumab did even better in a group of 96 patients (62% of the patients) who overexpressed FGFR2b in at least 10% of their tumor cells. The patients taking the bemarituzumab combo lived a median of just over two years (25.4 months) compared to 11 months for those who took chemo and placebo.
Overall, side effects struck patients in both groups at roughly the same rate (100% versus 99%), but cornea-related effects afflicted more patients taking bemarituzumab than placebo (67% compared to 10%).
The most common eye-related side effect was dry eye, affecting about 25% of patients.
Price Action: AMGN shares are up 1.2% at $238.56 during the market session on the last check Friday.
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