By Ransdell Pierson and Jessica Dye
NEW YORK, Dec 17 (Reuters) - Biotech company Amgen Inc is
scheduled to plead guilty on Tuesday in a criminal case in
federal court in Brooklyn, New York, prosecutors said.
A brief statement from the U.S. Attorney's office gave no
details of the charges Amgen would plead guilty to.
Representatives of Amgen could not immediately be reached to
comment on the subject matter of the expected plea.
Amgen in October 2011 said it had taken a $780 million
charge to settle a probe into allegedly illegal sales and
marketing practices. The investigation, relating to sales of its
anemia drugs Aranesp and Epogen, had been conducted for several
years by federal prosecutors in Brooklyn and Seattle.
Amgen said at the time that if settlement discussions were
successful, the $780 million would resolve federal probes and
related state Medicaid claims as well as other litigation. But
the company did not disclose when and if it would plead guilty
to criminal charges.
The biotechnology company disclosed in court papers filed in
2010 that it has been under investigation by the Brooklyn
federal prosecutor since 2006 in connection with alleged
violations of the False Claims Act and other federal statutes.
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