Amgen - Exhibitor | |
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Company Website Melissa Wilmer | Amgen is one of the world’s leading biotechnology companies. Amgen is a values-based company, deeply rooted in science and innovation to transform new ideas and discoveries into medicines for patients with serious illnesses. THE HUNT FOR NEW CHECKPOINT INHIBITORS Drugs that release the brakes on immune cells have helped many cancer patients, but not enough. Amgen is using human genetics and cutting-edge biology to search for new checkpoint targets that will work in more types of cancer and more patients. “Up to about 20 years ago, the word cure was almost forbidden in oncology,” said Flavius Martin, vice president for Oncology Research at Amgen. “In the last 10 years, immunotherapy has given us hope.” Extending that hope to more patients has become a major focus of cancer research. “We still have a long way to go,” said Ray Deshaies, Amgen’s senior vice president for Research. “So far, immunotherapy only works in a minority of cancers. Even in those cancers where it does work, you typically see a striking remission in only about one-third of the patients treated. But I’m very optimistic about the future and in particular about the work that Amgen is doing now.” |