A New York judge today accepted a guilty plea by a biotech giant based in Ventura County over charges it illegally introduced a misbranded drug into interstate commerce, and will pay a total of $150 million dollars in penalties and fines.
The issue was Amgen’s marketing of the anemia drug Aranesp.
The Thousand Oaks company will also pay more than $600 million dollars to settle civil litigation involved with Aranesp, and some other drugs. The total payout by Amgen is $762 million dollars.
The company also admitted it made mistakes, and has realigned its compliance efforts to insure something similar doesn’t happen in the future.
