By Tom Kisken
Ventura County Star
Excerpts:
Drug companies Johnson & Johnson and Amgen battled each other so bitterly in a market share war that they pushed drugs and dosages jeopardizing patients’ lives, said the Santa Barbara author of a book about Johnson & Johnson whistle-blowers. Kathleen Sharp’s “Blood Feud” focuses on anemia drugs created by Amgen when the Thousand Oaks biotech giant was just a startup. Procrit, sold by Johnson & Johnson through what Sharp describes as a conflict-riddled partnership with Amgen, and Amgen’s own Epogen and Aranesp all became popular, billion-dollar drugs.
She said the book is based on hundreds of interviews and thousands of documents — from Duxbury, a second whistle-blower, the FDA, congressional hearings and litigation involving Amgen, Ortho Biotech and others. Her book begins with a cancer patient on Procrit who bled to death. She also explores whistle-blower allegations that Ortho overbilled Medicare and paid kickbacks to doctors who prescribed Procrit.
She wants drug companies and doctors to provide transparent information to patients about medication risks. But she also wants people to take as much responsibility as they can by doing research and asking point-blank questions. “We can’t blindly obey what doctors and drug companies tell us,” she said. “That way lies madness.”