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Former sales reps file suits against Amgen

Pharma Compliance Alert, January 16, 2008

Two former Amgen sales representatives are seeking damages against the company in arbitration and are alleging improper marketing and HIPAA violations, according to the L.A. Times.

Marc Engelman and Elena Ferrante both claim Amgen required sales representatives to ask physicians for access to patient records so they could market Enbrel, a powerful psoriasis treatment, directly to the patients who may not have needed it. Allowing pharmaceutical sales representatives access to patient information is a violation of HIPAA.

Engelman and Ferrante claim Amgen instructed sales representatives to compose and send letters on physicians' letterhead, signed by the physicians suggesting patients with mild psoriasis consider Enbrel. They also claim sales representatives posed as office staff and called insurance companies to get patients pre-approved for Enbrel.

Engelman voluntarily left Amgen in 2006, while Ferrante was fired in 2005.

In recent years, many pharmaceutical companies have been hit with huge fines for improper marketing, but Amgen is not one of them.

Click here to read more in the L.A. Times.

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