Amgen’s Arthritis Drug to Carry Cancer Warning

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Anti-inflammatory drugs known as TNF blockers must carry stronger warnings about the increased risk of sometimes fatal cancer in children and adolescents, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday.

Drugs in that category include Abbott Laboratories’ Humira, Amgen Inc.’s Enbrel, Johnson & Johnson’s Remicade and Simponi, and UCB SA’s Cimzia, the FDA said in an e-mailed statement. The medicines are used to treat rheumatoid arthritis and the bowel ailment Crohn’s disease, along with other inflammatory diseases.

TNF blockers generated about $15 billion last year, according to IMS Health Inc., a Norwalk, Conn.-based market researcher. Enbrel produced $3.6 billion in sales last year for Thousand Oaks-based Amgen, making it the biotechnology company’s biggest-selling drug. The stricter cancer-risk warning for the medicines stems from an investigation announced by the FDA in June 2008.



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