Study Delivers Specifics on Amgen Drug

A clinical trial of cancer patients taking Amgen Inc.’s anemia drug Aranesp found that one in four died after 19 weeks, a rate about 5 percent higher than those taking a placebo. The study examined 851 patients over two years and found a mortality rate of 48.5 percent among those taking Aranesp versus 46 percent for those taking the placebo. The specific data is part of a study released in January. At that time, Amgen disclosed that Aranesp had higher rates, although the exact numbers from the full trial were not available until this week. The data fuels concerns by some doctors that anemia drugs such as Aranesp may inadvertently feed the growth of tumors instead of hampering it.