HEALTH

Japanese Firm Gets License for Amgen Drug: Yamanouchi Pharmaceutical Co. has paid $15 million, plus royalties, for the rights to sell overseas Amgen Inc.’s Infergen, a developmental drug to fight hepatitis C. Thousand Oaks-based Amgen will keep the rights to the drug in the U.S. and Canada. Infergen has been tested on patients with hepatitis C, a virus usually contracted through blood transfusions. A rival medication developed by Schering-Plough is already on the market. This spring, Amgen applied to the Food and Drug Administration to sell Infergen in the U.S., but approval is not likely until late 1997. Last year, Infergen’s test results were considered disappointing because it appeared to work no better than the Schering-Plough drug.