This year’s meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH) began yesterday morning in New Orleans.

Myeloma-related presentations were made during several sessions yesterday.

Two sessions were designed to better educate physicians about multiple myeloma and how to treat the disease.

The key myeloma-related research presented yesterday was made public during a poster session in the evening about the biology of myeloma as well as pre­clin­i­cal and clin­i­cal studies testing new and existing treat­ments for myeloma.

During the session, research results were made avail­able for review by meeting attendees in the form …

The Beacon con­tinues today with its ‘ASH preview’ series about mye­lo­ma re­search that will be pre­sented at the American Society of Hema­tol­o­gy (ASH) meet­ing in early December.

Abstracts for the ASH presentations are now avail­able, although many con­tain pre­lim­i­nary in­­for­ma­tion that will be updated at the meet­ing.

The Beacon’s ASH preview articles are in­tended to highlight the meet­ing's most in­ter­est­ing myeloma-related studies.

The first and second previews, published earlier this week and last week, provide an overview of ASH abstracts about the newest poten­tial mye­lo­ma ther­a­pies just starting out in clin­i­cal trials.  Further previews will …

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 …

Decision could sig­nif­i­cantly im­prove trans­plant out­comes for patients with multiple myeloma

Beerse, Belgium (Press Release) - Janssen-Cilag Inter­na­tional NV (Janssen) announced today that the European Com­mis­sion (EC) has approved the use of VELCADE^® (bor­tez­o­mib) as induction ther­apy (a first thera­peutic option) in com­bi­na­tion with dexa­meth­a­sone (VD) or thalido­mide and dexa­meth­a­sone (VTD).[1] This licence extension will apply to adult patients with pre­vi­ously-untreated multiple myeloma who are eligi­ble for high-dose chemo­ther­apy with haematological stem cell trans­plan­ta­tion.

Until now, VELCADE’s (bor­tez­o­mib) indi­ca­tion has been limited to its use, in com­bi­na­tion with mel­phalan and pred­ni­sone, in adult patients with multiple myeloma that are pre­vi­ously untreated and in­eli­gible for stem …