Experience counts in TPO race

Amgen Inc. (AMGN) is first out of the starting blocks in the race to commercialize the new platelet growth factor, thrombopoietin (TPO), whose discovery was published simultaneously by four competing companies barely a year ago.

AMGN and partner Kirin Pharmaceutical, a division of Kirin Brewery Co. Ltd. (Japan) announced the start of a Phase I/II trial of safety and efficacy of TPO, which they call megakaryocyte growth and development factor, in the U.S. and Australia...