(LEGAFI) -- Biotech company Amgen, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMGN) has agreed to settle 10 whistleblower lawsuits that accuse the company of illegal sales and marketing tactics relating to its anemia drugs, Aranesp and Epogen. The $780 million Amgen settlement will also resolve various federal and state investigations that have been under way for several years by U.S. attorney offices.

 

Most of the Amgen whistleblower lawsuits remain under seal, but  regulatory filings say the lawsuits allege Amgen “engaged in a wide variety of illegal marketing practices” that involve the marketing, pricing and dosing of Aranesp and Epogen, and the dissemination of information about clinical trials on the safety and effectiveness of those drugs. 

Numerous current and former Amgen executives have received civil and grand jury subpoenas over the alleged illegal acts. According to court documents, five former executives invoked their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination during their depositions. 

According to one unsealed Amgen whistleblower lawsuit, the company overfilled vials of Aranesp to provide doctors with free amounts of the drug to give patients, and then encouraged them to charge Medicare, Medicaid or private insurers for the free drug. The whistleblower lawsuit says Amgen persuaded doctors to use Aranesp, rather than Procrit, a rival anemia drug sold by Johnson & Johnson, by pointing to the extra profits the doctors could make by using the overfill and billing for it.