J&J; to Reimburse Amgen’s Expenses

Johnson & Johnson said Friday that a federal arbitrator ordered it to reimburse archrival Amgen Inc. for attorneys’ fees and expenses incurred by the Thousand Oaks-based biotechnology company in its drug licensing dispute. Neither side provided an estimate for the fees, but a source said they would be in the tens of millions.

In October, an arbitrator ordered J&J; to pay Amgen $150 million in damages for poaching its rival’s dialysis business. But J&J; wanted Amgen to pay for attorneys’ fees because the arbitrator denied Amgen’s request to terminate the 1985 licensing deal.

The contract permits J&J; to sell the anemia treatment EPO outside the kidney dialysis market in the United States, where Amgen exclusively sells the drug it invented.