Amgen platelet therapy hits endpoint in Phase III

A day after seeing its stock take a nasty dive on more bad news related to Aranesp, Amgen reported on Saturday that a late-stage study of romiplostim for increasing platelet levels in patients with Immune Thrombocytopenic Purpura hit its primary endpoint. In data revealed at the American Society of Hematology's annual meeting, researchers said that 38 percent of patients taking the drug had a sustained platelet response and patients were able to reduce or stop taking other drugs for the condition. More romiplostim data will be released today on another group of patients. Out of the 42 patients taking the therapy 26 percent needed other ITP meds to increase their platelet count compared to 57 percent of the patients taking a placebo.

- see this release on the data
- check out the report from TheStreet

ALSO: Take a look at Amgen's pipeline. Report