Amgen CEO Kevin Sharer dropped by The Wall Street Journal to tout the company's chances in developing denosumab (D-mab) into a badly needed blockbuster. The discovery program began in an Amgen lab when researchers observed that one of the knockout mice it had developed during gene disabling research work had grown huge. "We noticed, hey that's a really big mouse," Sharer told the Journal. "It's really got big bones."
It's also got really big market potential. Amgen believes that D-mab, which blocks the protein expressed by the gene knocked out in the mice, is worth at least a billion dollars a year, which would make up for some of the market it has lost in anemia drugs. Sharer also said that the drug would be priced closer to $1,000 a year--a fraction of the $10,000 a year tab that many biologics run.
- read the report in the Wall Street Journal