Amgen In Trouble

The top story in the business section of today's Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the little paper that tried (harder), says that Thousand Oaks, Calif.-based Amgen Inc., the world's largest biotechnology company and the maker of the drug Aranesp, will slash jobs for the first time in its 27-year history.

What can I say but that it couldn't happen to a more deserving bunch of folks?

Let's not forget, this is the company that paid kickbacks to doctors who prescribed its drugs. Kickbacks that would have been illegal if the drug had been in pill form, but slipped though a loophole in the law because the drug is given as a shot or by IV.

This is also the product, Aranesp, that was killing people, causing congestive heart failure, strokes, and a whole range of nasty problems in sick people who already had enough to worry about.

I take this whole mess personally, very personally, because I've been given Aranesp (as well as Epo and Procrit, which are essentially the same drug under different brand names) at various times during my years of chemotherapy, and never thought much about it.

Nor did anyone on my medical team mention any problems associated with the shot, even after the risks became known last fall. My medical oncologist at Swedish Cancer Institute in Seattle prescribed a shot of Aranesp in December, because I was anemic, without mentioning the risks.

Nor did my doctor monitor my hemoglobin levels or blood pressure closely, both FDA recommendations for patients on these drugs.

The next time I was anemic, earlier this year, my doctor suggested that we try to get it under control with diet, again without telling me about the problems with Aranesp. When I found out about it on my own and asked her about it, she downplayed the risks, and certainly didn't tell me that people had DIED on these drugs.

When my anemia did not improve, and in fact got worse, I did get a shot of Aranesp, but I got it after I had researched what was going on and discussed it carefully with my doctors. Then, fully informed, I decided to go ahead and get the shot.

Aranesp is a good drug, as anyone with chemo-induced anemia will tell you, but it needs to be used more carefully, and patients need to be fully informed.

Here are the links to my earlier posts on Aranesp and Amgen:

May 11
Kickbacks on Aranesp: Boycott Amgen and Johnson & Johnson

April 17
More on Aranesp

April 9
Chemo, Anemia, and Aranesp

April 4
Whining About Anemia

A Footnote: Aranesp costs more than $5,000 a shot, at the retail (i.e., cancer center) level.

@ Jeanne Sather 2007.

Comments

[Amy]

My husband has gotten Aranesp. The thing is, side effects don't mean much when you feel like you've got the "tiger by the tail", which is the phrase one of his doctors uses. He'd do anything in the immediate moment. I'm not sure he'd change his treatment or even make a peep about side effects, thinking that he could always deal with it downstream. Later. He'd be so glad to get to that point, down the road, alive, that the warnings mean very little to him. I think the doctors bank on this reaction from patients.

[jeanne]

Amy--that makes sense, of course, but I'm a cancer patient who really wants to know what's going on, so that I can make a good decision.

The fact that I felt so terrible with the anemia was a huge factor, of course, but I needed to discuss the pros and cons before making the decision to get the shot. Otherwise, I don't feel safe.