Licensing Opportunity From Amgen

Amgen of the USA is planning to license out a broad portfolio oftechnology in the field of inflammation to a corporate partner. As part of the plan, Amgen's Boulder, Colorado-based inflammation research unit will be spun-off as a stand-alone inflammation R&D company.

Amgen chief executive Gordon Binder said that the decision reflects the fact that the company now has too many promising product candidates for its available R&D resources. Included in the new entity's portfolio are three product candidates which are already in human clinical trials, namely;

- an interleukin-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1ra) which is currently in a Phase I/II trial in combination with the disease-modifying antirheumatic drug methotrexate in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. A second generation sustained-delivery formulation of IL-1ra is also being developed. Amgen plans to conduct development of both first and second generation IL-1ra simultaneously;