Onyx Pharmaceuticals

Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Inc. was a pharmaceutical company headquartered in South San Francisco, California that developed and marketed cancer treatment medications. It was founded and incorporated with the California Secretary of State in February 1992 by venture capitalist Kevin J. Kinsella and Frank McCormick, Ph.D., FRS, D.Sc. (Hon.), a renowned British-American biochemist.[2] McCormick served as the chief scientific officer until 1996,[2] while Kinsella chaired the company's board of directors.[3] On March 26, 1996, Onyx withdrew its corporate registration with the California Secretary of State and reincorporated in the state of Delaware in advance of successfully taking the company public on the NASDAQ exchange using National Market symbol ONXX on May 9, 1996.[4] In 2009, the company acquired private biotechnology company Proteolix

Products and development

Nexavar

Co-developed and co-marketed with Bayer, sorafenib—sold under the trade name Nexavar—is a drug approved in the United States for the treatment of advanced renal cell carcinoma (kidney cancer) in 2005, and for the treatment of inoperable hepatocellular carcinoma, the most common form of liver cancer, in 2007.[9][10] Sorafenib has also been evaluated in other types of cancer, including thyroid (as a treatment of last resort) and breast (in comparison to capecitabine).[11][12]

In July 2014, the company announced the phase III failure of a Sorafenib-Capecitabine combination trial. The drug combination failed to increase progression free survival of patients with advanced breast cancer.[13]

Kyprolis

Carfilzomib, marketed under the trade name Kyprolis, was approved on June 20, 2012, by the FDA for use in patients with multiple myeloma who have received at least two prior therapies, including treatment with bortezomib and an immunotherapy, and have demonstrated disease progression on or within 60 days of completion of the most recent therapy.[14][15] Carfilzomib is also being evaluated in other stages of multiple myeloma. The most commonly reported adverse reactions (incidence ≥ 30%) are fatigue, anemia, nausea, thrombocytopenia, shortness of breath, diarrhea and fever.[15]

Stivarga

Regorafenib (marketed under the trade name Stivarga) is currently being studied as a potential treatment option in multiple tumor types.[16] On September 27, 2012, the FDA approved regorafenib for the treatment of patients with metastatic colorectal cancer who have been previously treated with fluoropyrimidine-, oxaliplatin- and irinotecan-based chemotherapy, an anti-VEGF therapy, and, if KRAS wild-type, an anti-EGFR therapy.[17] On February 25, 2013, the FDA approved regorafenib in a second indication to treat patients with locally advanced, unresectable or metastatic gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) who have been previously treated with imatinib mesylate and sunitinib malate.[18] Regorafenib is a compound developed by Bayer. The most common adverse reactions (≥ 20%) are asthenia/fatigue, hand-foot skin reaction (HFSR), diarrhea, decreased appetite/food intake, hypertension, mucositis, dysphonia and infection, pain (not otherwise specified), weight loss, abdominal pain,

type	Publicly traded
isin	isin: US6833991093
industry	Pharmaceutical
founded	February 1992 in So. San Francisco, Calif.
defunct	October 1, 2013‡R1R‡
fate	Acquired by Amgen
hq location city	South San Francisco, California
hq location country	United States
key people	N. Anthony Coles (CEO)
products	Sorafenib (Nexavar) Carfilzomib (Kyprolis) Regorafenib (Stivarga)
num employees	741‡R1R‡
num employees year	2012

Onyx Pharmaceuticals

Formation

Products and development

Nexavar

Kyprolis

Stivarga

Acquisition

External links

References