Thousand Oaks, CA and South San Francisco, CA (Press Release) - Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) and its sub­sid­i­ary Onyx Pharma­ceu­ticals, Inc. today announced that nearly 40 com­pany-sponsored and inves­ti­gator-sponsored inves­ti­ga­tional studies eval­u­ating car­filz­o­mib, a second-generation pro­te­a­some inhibitor, and oprozomib, an oral second-generation pro­te­a­some in­hib­i­tor in early devel­op­ment, will be presented at the 55th American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting and Exposition on December 7-10, 2013 at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, LA.

"We are encouraged by the breadth of data from our Proteasome Inhibitor franchise being presented this year …

Results from a recent Phase 2 trial indicate that the com­bi­na­tion of Kyprolis, Revlimid, and dexa­meth­a­sone is effective in re­lapsed multi­ple myeloma patients.

Specifically, the results show that 77 per­cent of patients responded to the treat­ment. The investigators point out the responses seen in the trial were rapid (median time to response was one month) and robust (medi­an duration of response was 22 months).

According to the investigators, the results are particularly encouraging because one-quarter of the patients were refractory (resistant) to Velcade (bor­tez­o­mib) and almost half were refractory to …

A new retrospective study provides insight into the benefit the new mye­lo­ma drugs Kyprolis and Pomalyst may provide to patients who are re­sis­tant to, or cannot tolerate, both Velcade and Revlimid.

The study's results highlight how challenging it can be to find an effective treat­ment for patients who are “dual refractory” (resistant to both Velcade and Rev­li­mid).

Patients in the study who received either Kyprolis (car­filz­o­mib) or Poma­lyst (poma­lido­mide, Imnovid) after becoming dual refractory had longer over­all survival than those who were not treated with the new drugs.

The …

Onyx Pharmaceuticals, the South San Francisco, California-based com­pany that developed and now mar­kets Kyprolis (car­filz­o­mib), announced yesterday eve­ning that it is being acquired by Amgen.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN), which is based outside of Los Angeles, is the world’s largest bio­tech com­pany.

Within the multiple myeloma community, Amgen is known most for its anemia medications – Aranesp (darbe­poetin alfa) and Epogen (epoetin alfa, also mar­keted as Procrit and Eprex) – as well as its drugs that in­crease the body’s pro­duc­tion of white blood cells – Neupogen (filgra­stim) and Neulasta …

Physicians and researchers have started gathering for the 18th Congress of the European Hematology Association (EHA), which will take place in Stockholm this year.  The first education and poster sessions of the meet­ing will take place tomorrow, Friday, June 14.  Additional sessions of vari­ous kinds are scheduled for both days of the weekend, until the meet­ing ends early Sunday afternoon (European time).

The research presented at the meeting will cover all areas of hematology, which is the study of blood, blood-forming organs, and blood-related dis­eases, in­clud­ing multiple myeloma.

The EHA meeting is …

This year’s meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) was held May 31 through June 4 in Chicago.

During the meeting, The Beacon pub­lished daily up­dates that provided over­views of the im­por­tant mul­ti­ple myeloma findings pre­sented during the meeting.

Now that the meeting has concluded, the focus shifts to the bigger picture: What were the key findings of the meeting? Were there re­­sults with im­medi­ate im­pli­ca­­tions for the treat­ment of mul­ti­ple myeloma?  Did the re­search at the meeting rep­re­sent a major step for­ward for myeloma patients, or …

This year’s American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), which was held in Chicago, began on Friday and concluded on Tuesday.

Monday was the busiest day at the meeting with regard to myeloma re­search.  It featured a session of oral pre­sen­ta­tions in the morn­ing and a poster session in the afternoon.

This up­date summarizes the myeloma-related stud­ies pre­sented during the afternoon poster session, which was the final myeloma-related session of the meeting. An earlier article covered the findings from the oral pre­sen­ta­tions that were given in the morn­ing.

Most of the key …