THOUSAND OAKS, CA – January 24, 2003 – Amgen (Nasdaq:AMGN) today announced that an arbitrator determined that Amgen was the prevailing party in the recent arbitration with Johnson & Johnson and ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay Amgen's costs and reasonable attorneys' fees incurred by Amgen in the arbitration. Amgen currently estimates those costs and fees, incurred over four years, to be significant. The arbitrator will determine the final amount Amgen will recover.
On October 18, 2002, the arbitrator found that Johnson & Johnson breached its license agreement with Amgen by promoting its brand of Epoetin alfa, Procrit®, into Amgen's reserved dialysis market. The arbitrator found that Johnson & Johnson's conduct was illegal, egregious, and indefensible. As a result, the arbitrator ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay Amgen $150 million in damages. In today's ruling, the arbitrator made clear Amgen was the prevailing party and stated: “Ortho has been found guilty of intentional breach of the [product license agreement] and has been assessed damages…It lost a significant damage claim to a prevailing Amgen.”
This news release contains forward-looking statements that involve significant risks and uncertainties, including those discussed below and more fully described in the Securities and Exchange Commission reports filed by Amgen, including our most recent Form 10-Q. Amgen conducts research in the biotechnology/pharmaceutical field where movement from concept to product is uncertain; consequently, there can be no guarantee that any particular product candidate will be successful and become a commercial product.
Furthermore, our research, testing, pricing, marketing and other operations are subject to extensive regulation by domestic and foreign government regulatory authorities. In addition, sales of our products are affected by reimbursement policies imposed by third party payors, including governments, private insurance plans and managed care providers. These government regulations and reimbursement policies may affect the development, usage and pricing of our products.
In addition, while we routinely obtain patents for our products and technology, the protection offered by our patents and patent applications may be challenged, invalidated or circumvented by our competitors.
Because forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, actual results may differ materially from current results expected by Amgen. Amgen is providing this information as of January 23, 2003 and expressly disclaims any duty to update information contained in this press release.
Amgen is a global biotechnology company that discovers, develops, manufactures and markets important human therapeutics based on advances in cellular and molecular biology.
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CONTACT: Amgen, Thousand Oaks
Barbara Bronson Gray 805/447-4949 (media)
Cary Rosansky, 805/447-4634 (investors)