Panel Seeks Records on ImClone
The House Energy and Commerce Committee is seeking records from Amgen Inc., Pharmacia Corp. and five other drug makers on their discussions with ImClone Systems Inc. about possible partnerships.
The committee, along with the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission, is investigating whether ImClone misled investors about its cancer drug Erbitux. Letters also were sent to Eli Lilly & Co., Merck & Co., Johnson & Johnson, Chiron Corp., and Abbott Laboratories.
The committee previously requested records from ImClone and its estranged marketing partner Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., which acquired marketing rights to Erbitux last fall in a $2-billion deal.
ImClone stunned investors Dec.28 by disclosing that the Food and Drug Administration refused to consider its Erbitux application. Shares of the New York-based company have plunged almost 70% since the announcement. The shares fell $1.12 to $16.77 in Thursday’s trading on Nasdaq.
Each of the seven drug makers was “engaged in serious discussions” with ImClone about forming a strategic partnership related to Erbitux, said House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman W.J. “Billy” Tauzin (R-La.) and ranking Democrat John D. Dingell of Michigan, in their letters seeking documents. When those discussions took place wasn’t clear.
ImClone previously disclosed in a regulatory filing that during the summer of 2000, it approached several pharmaceutical companies, including Bristol, about a “strategic transaction.” The unnamed companies conducted due diligence, but no deal resulted.
Amgen confirmed it looked seriously at Erbitux but decided not to go forward. “There are a lot of decision points that make something a good fit,” said Amgen spokesman Jeff Richardson. “The science, the price.”
Chiron also confirmed it looked at Erbitux, but noted that “such discussions are common in biotechnology.” Amgen and Chiron said they would cooperate with the committee.
The remaining companies couldn’t be reached. People in the industry have speculated that Pharmacia was interested in Erbitux because it markets the chemotherapy drug irinotecan, which ImClone has combined with Erbitux in trials with colon cancer patients.
Tauzin and Dingell asked the drug makers for all internal audits, investigations, reports and other records relating to ImClone.
Meanwhile, ImClone Chief Executive Samuel Waksal has paid back almost $500,000 to the company after discovering he may have violated a regulation designed to discourage insider trading. The CEO returned the money to ImClone after making a series of trades with an exchange fund, a Wall Street arrangement for corporate insiders who want to diversify their stock holdings.
