NEW YORK (AP) – Wall Street anticipates strong sales of Amgen’s cancer drug candidate Xgeva.
Analysts expect Xgeva to be approved next year for preventing cancer from spreading to a patient’s bones. Amgen recently reported late-stage clinical trial results showing Xgeva stopped prostate cancer from spreading to the bones of patients for about four months longer than a placebo. The drug was approved in November for preventing fractures in patients with tumors that had already spread to the bone.
Bret Holley of Oppenheimer & Co. said Amgen could get $1 billion in annual sales of Xgeva based on the results and an expected new approval from the Food and Drug Administration. He said the results are a “major win” for Amgen, which is relying on Xgeva to help boost its revenue growth.
Jefferies & Co. analyst Eun Yang said the results make Xgeva a stronger competitor to Novartis AG’s bone drug Zometa, as Xgeva is more effective than Zometa at treating bone metastases. She said there are no approved drugs for preventing cancer from metastasizing to bone. Yang expects the Thousand Oaks, Calif., company to file for the new approval in the first quarter of 2011, with FDA clearance coming in the second half of the year.
Xgeva is also approved as an osteoporosis drug under the name Prolia. Yang said combined sales of the drugs could reach about $2 billion by 2013.
Date: December 14, 2010
Source: Associated Press
