Bid to block Amgen drug discount fails

A federal judge has denied a request by Johnson & Johnson to temporarily stop Amgen Inc. from selling its anemia drug Aranesp at a discount to doctors who agree to also buy another Amgen product, the companies said Wednesday.

Johnson & Johnson’s Ortho Biotech unit claims that Thousand Oaks-based Amgen unfairly bundles Aranesp with its white blood cell-boosting drug Neulasta to cancer doctors -- with the discount on Aranesp contingent on the purchase of Neulasta.

New Brunswick, N.J.-based Johnson & Johnson, which makes Procrit, an anemia treatment that competes with Aranesp, filed a lawsuit in 2005 in the U.S. District Court in Newark, N.J., claiming that Amgen’s contract with oncologists violates antitrust regulations.

Amgen, which agrees that it offers the discount to doctors who also buy Neulasta, said there was nothing improper about the practice.

“The contract is a legal and a legitimate way to give our best discounts to our best customers,” said David Polk, a spokesman for Amgen. “It’s a long-standing practice in this industry and others.”

Johnson & Johnson, however, claims that because Neulasta, and its predecessor drug, Neupogen, are life-saving drugs that help ward off infection and have no real competition, doctors who want affordable access to Neulasta are forced to buy Aranesp.

“We are committed to our position that Amgen’s contracts with oncology clinics are anti-competitive and could have adverse consequences for physicians, the healthcare system and competition,” Johnson & Johnson said in a statement.

Amgen’s Aranesp generated sales in 2005 of nearly $3.3 billion, while combined sales of Neulasta and Neupogen were $3.5 billion. Sales of Johnson & Johnson’s Procrit, known in Europe as Eprex, were $2.5 billion.

Aranesp and Procrit are both designed to treat anemia caused by the depletion of the human hormone erythropoietin. In 1985 Amgen, which developed both treatments, granted Johnson & Johnson an exclusive license to Procrit.

Procrit is approved to treat anemia in several patient populations, including those suffering from anemia induced by chemotherapy. But in 2002 Amgen introduced Aranesp, a synthetic form of erythropoietin, as a treatment for chemotherapy patients, placing it in direct competition with Procrit.

Judge Stanley R. Chesler said Johnson & Johnson had failed to show that it had suffered irreparable injury -- defined as injury that cannot be redressed after a trial. Monetary loss does not constitute irreparable harm, he said, because the company could be compensated if necessary at a later date.

Both companies said they were planning to vigorously defend themselves in court.

Separately, a U.S. appeals court earlier denied an Amgen petition to reconsider a recent ruling in a long-standing patent battle to keep two other drug makers from selling a product that would compete with Amgen’s end-stage kidney disease drug Epogen.

Amgen shares fell 30 cents to $72.68 on Wednesday. Johnson & Johnson rose 17 cents to $66.77.