Amgen to pay $24.9 million to resolve false claims on Aranesp marketing

USA-based Amgen (Nasdaq: AMGN), the world’s largest independent biotech company,  has agreed to pay the United States $24.9 million to settle allegations that it violated the False Claims Act, the US Justice Department announced on April 16.

The settlement resolves allegations that Amgen paid kickbacks to long-term care pharmacy providers Omnicare, PharMerica Corp and Kindred Healthcare  in return for implementing “therapeutic interchange” programs that were designed to switch Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries from a competitor drug to Aranesp, Amgen’s  blockbuster anemia drug Aranesp (darbepoetin alfa).

Last year, Amgen accepted a guilty plea for illegally introducing a misbranded drug (Aranesp) into interstate commerce. The plea was part of a global settlement with the USA in which Amgen agreed to pay $762 million to resolve criminal and civil liability arising from its sale and promotion of certain drugs (The Pharma Letter December 19, 2012).