Ortho Suit Accuses Amgen of Stifling the Competition ; Says Sales Tactics Force Doctors to Pick Rival Drug
Posted on: Friday, 14 October 2005, 15:01 CDT
By JEFFREY GOLD, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEWARK - In a bid to protect its best-selling drug, Procrit, a Johnson & Johnson company has accused Amgen Inc. of antitrust violations, claiming that illegal sales practices force cancer doctors to choose its competing anti-anemia drug.
"The result will be less competition, less physician and patient choice and an increased expense to the public health system," J&J's Ortho Biotech Products LP said in a lawsuit.
Amgen spokeswoman Mary Klem said Thursday: "Amgen definitely believes the allegations in the lawsuit are without merit, and we intend to vigorously defend our position."
The dispute involves Amgen's anti-anemia drug, Aranesp, which Ortho Biotech said now accounts for about two-thirds of sales to oncology clinics for products to aid red blood cell growth. Ortho Biotech said that share has risen nearly 50 percent in the past 18 months because of Amgen's illegal pricing policies.
Ortho Biotech, based in Bridgewater, claimed that Amgen penalizes oncology clinics by requiring they buy nearly all red blood cell growth drugs from Amgen if the clinics want good deals on its two white blood cell growth drugs, Neulasta and Neupogen.
Amgen has a near-monopoly for the lifesaving white blood cell drugs, with 98 percent of clinic sales, said Ortho Biotech, which does not have a competing product.
Failure to buy at least 75 percent of red blood cell drugs from Amgen means that a clinic will have to buy Neulasta and Neupogen at prices that exceed government reimbursement, the suit said.
The Aranesp share must be at least 90 percent for clinics to receive the same price they got prior to Oct. 1, the lawsuit said.
Ortho Biotech wants Amgen, based in Thousand Oaks, Calif., barred from continuing the pricing practice regarding the drugs, and to pay Ortho Biotech unspecified monetary damages, according to the lawsuit, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Trenton.
Source: Record, The; Bergen County, N.J.
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