“Amgen addresses all unmet needs regardless of indication”

Philip Tagari, VP of Research at Amgen Global

Lumakras developed in the shortest time in industry history through strong collaboration

Is developing a candidate for obesity...will address unresolved challenges

Philip Tagari, VP of Research at Amgen Global

Amgen owns a vast portfolio of treatments in many areas.

 

Rather than focusing on a particular field, the company has been known to release new drugs in the right places at the right time In addition to actively developing drugs for chronic diseases such as the osteoporosis treatments 'Prolia (denosumab)’ and ‘Evenity (romosozumab),’ the osteoporosis complication prevention drug ‘Xgeva (denosumab),’ and the dyslipidemia treatment ‘Repatha (evolocumab),’ the company has also followed up with the recent trend and released oncology drugs such as the acute lymphoblastic leukemia drug ‘Blincyto (blinatumomab), multiple myeloma treatment 'Kyprolis (carfilzomib),' and the recent KRAS inhibitor ‘Lumakras (sotorasib).’ These achievements were of course made possible with the support of the company’s R&D department.

 

Dailypharm met with Philip Tagari, Vice President of Research at Amgen Global, who recently visited Korea, to hear about the company’s R&D direction and open innovation strategy.

 

-You served over 20 years in Amgen’s R&D department.

 

Which treatment were you most deeply involved in developing? I would say Lumakras.

 

Amgen won the 2022 Prix Galien Award for Best Pharmaceutical Agent with Lumakras.

 

This was very meaningful for us as the Prix Galien Award is considered the industry’s equivalent of the Nobel prize and the highest accolade for pharmaceutical research and development.

 

I have been involved in the research and development of Lumakras in Amgen's R&D department for more than a decade with many colleagues.

 

In a way, the drug has been researched and developed in the shortest time not only in Amgen but throughout the whole industry.

 

I still remember the joy I felt when our belief was confirmed in the clinical trial with groundbreaking data in non-small-cell lung cancer.

 

Also, there is Repatha, our hypercholesterolemia treatment.

 

We had great confidence in Repatha since the discovery of its candidate substance.

 

I think Repatha will continue to have significance in the field and bring positive impact on public health for decades to come.

 

-You said Repatha was commercialized in the shortest period yet.

 

Is there a special know-how of Amgen's or any episode behind the rapid development of Lumakras you’d like to share? Amgen had long been thoroughly analyzing how to shorten the entire new drug development process, since several years before we discovered sotorasib, the active substance of Lumakras.

 

After several years of analysis, we had gained some idea on how to conduct the R&D.

 

It was around that time we discovered AMG 510, the candidate substance that later became Lumakras.

 

So I would say our rapid development was a result of the company’s implementation of a delicate and carefully planned development plan rather than a special technology or ability.

 

-Amgen is also known to be interested in open innovation.

 

Were any of the products in your pipeline born through open innovation? Evenity is one representative result of our open innovation.

 

The drug was developed through collaboration with a doctor in South Africa, a UK-based small biotechnology company British Biotech, and Amgen.

 

At the time, a doctor in South Africa recognized how a specific disease continued to emerge in the local community and asked British Biotech to analyze the cause.

 

Results showed that the disease was caused by a mutation of the sclerostin protein.

 

So the company first needed sclerostin to develop a treatment, and Amgen was the only company that owned such technology.

 

Amgen produced the protein, which led to the commercialization of Evenity.

 

-Would you like to introduce any promising candidate substances that are in development? It is difficult to mention specifics before approvals, but one of the most promising items in our development pipeline is an obesity drug.

 

Obesity is a serious global public health issue that is growing in importance.

 

So you can expect various treatments for obesity and cardiovascular diseases from Amgen to come in the future.