Amgen, $24.9 million

U.S. ex rel. Kurnik v. Amgen, Inc., et al.,
District of South Carolina.

Firm attorneys represented Relator Frank Kurnik, in a case where pharmaceutical giant Amgen was alleged to have paid kickbacks to long-term care pharmacies to place elderly patients in nursing homes across the nation on the company’s anemia drug, Aranesp, often without concern for the patient’s best interest or therapeutic appropriateness.  The drug, one of several Erythropoetin stimulating agents (ESAs) on the market, was developed to treat patients with severe anemia whose lives were endangered from receiving frequent blood transfusions.  Amgen entered into a $24.9 million settlement with the government to resolve these claims.