Heavy Interest : Firm Is Flooded With Calls About Anti-Obesity Hormone

The phones started ringing almost immediately at Amgen Inc. A dozen calls came in overnight to the biotechnology giant, and about 200 more came in during office hours Thursday.

The callers had heard the promising news about Amgen’s anti-obesity hormone, about how it had trimmed the fat in laboratory mice, and they wondered if it could do the same for them.

They offered themselves for human trials of the newly discovered hormone, even though such tests are at least a year away. Some called wanting to know where they could get hold of the fat-busting hormone, even though such a drug, if ever developed commercially, is years away from being marketed.

“It may be that a lot of people are seriously medically obese and they are looking for something that can treat them,” Amgen spokeswoman Lynne Connell said about the frenzy surrounding the weight-reducing discovery. “It’s a very serious disorder, but there is hope out there now,” Connell added. “I think some people were grasping for that hope.”

According to federal government estimates, 58 million adults, or a third of the adult population, are obese, which is defined as weighing 20% or more above the ideal weight.

Countless more just want to lose a little weight.

“This is something that just about every person can relate to,” Thousand Oaks Mayor Jaime Zukowski said. “I think this is something everyone understands.”

Major discoveries are nothing new to Amgen. The company--Thousand Oaks’ largest private employer with about 2,800 workers--is well known for its production of Epogen and Neupogen, drugs that help enhance the effectiveness of kidney dialysis and chemotherapy.

Amgen officials said they have experience dealing with a flood of phone calls after a major announcement, similar to what they experienced Thursday.

About a year and half ago, spokesman David Kaye said, the company received about 200 calls after announcing the start of clinical trials for a drug to battle amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, better known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. That drug, while showing promise, is still winding its way through federal testing procedures.

In the world of weight reduction, Amgen has been awarded the exclusive rights to develop products based upon the so-called “fat gene,” discovered by researchers last year.

The company agreed to pay New York’s Rockefeller University $20 million for access to the gene, an agreement that could translate into tens of millions more dollars if marketable drugs are developed.

In early trials, an injection of Amgen’s anti-obesity hormone, dubbed leptin, caused genetically obese mice to lose a third of their weight in two weeks.

But Kaye said it is important to emphasize that tests on the hormone--being hyped by some in the media as a “fat pill” and a “wonder drug”-- still have a long way to go.

“We do not want to create the perception in the public that this is available, or even that we are going to start trials on humans,” Kaye said. “Yes, we are very excited, but we’ve only tested this thing in mice. There’s a long road ahead.”

Still, the news that Amgen could be on the ground floor of a drug with the potential of battling obesity was well received in the community.

“Any advance in any local firm is of benefit to the community,” said Zukowski, whose husband works for Amgen. “Certainly, I think it’s good news. They are one more step along the way to developing another product.”

Even at Amgen, officials said there was much excitement surrounding the early successes of the anti-obesity hormone. But at the same time, employees went back to the business of research and science.

“I think everyone here is very excited, and they enjoy the recognition especially with the increased media attention,” Connell said. “I think it is a validation of the kinds of work that people here do.”

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