Merck Gets Subpoena Related to Drug Marketing
By PETER LOFTUS
The Justice Department has issued a subpoena to Merck & Co. as part of a criminal investigation into the marketing of certain drugs, Merck said Monday.
The drugs are Temodar, which treats brain tumors; hepatitis C treatment PegIntron; and Intron A, which treats certain cancers and other conditions.
The Justice Department is seeking information about the marketing and selling activities for these drugs from 2004 to the present, Merck said. During most of that period, the drugs were marketed by Schering-Plough, which Merck acquired in 2009.
Merck of Whitehouse Station, N.J., disclosed the subpoena in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission Monday, saying it was part of a "federal health-care investigation under criminal statutes."
Merck spokesman Ron Rogers said the company is cooperating with the probe, but couldn't provide further comment.
Temodar sales totaled $481 million for the first six months of 2011, while PegIntron generated $319 million and Intron A had $96 million in sales.
The Justice Department has previously investigated Merck and other major drug makers for various health-care fraud allegations in recent years, including the alleged promotion of certain drugs for unauthorized uses.
Last year, Merck set aside $950 million for the impending settlement of a federal probe of Merck's research, marketing and selling activities surrounding the once-popular Vioxx pain drug, which Merck withdrew from the market in 2004 after it was linked to higher risk of heart attacks and strokes. A final settlement hasn't yet been publicly announced.
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UPDATE 1-Merck gets subpoena tied to marketing of 3 drugs
NEW YORK Mon Aug 8, 2011 9:47am EDT
NEW YORK Aug 8 (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Justice has issued Merck & Co (MRK.N) a subpoena seeking information about the drugmaker's marketing of three drugs acquired in its 2009 merger with Schering-Plough Corp.
The subpoena, which Merck disclosed in its quarterly securities filing, involves the brain cancer drug Temodar, hepatitis C medicine Peg-Intron, and Intron A, which is approved for hepatitis C as well as for forms of cancer.
The subpoena seeks information from January 2004 to the present "in a federal health care investigation under criminal statutes," Merck said in its filing. The company said it is cooperating with the probe. (Reporting by Lewis Krauskopf, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)
Feds subpoena Merck in marketing probe
Merck has stumbled into one of the hidden traps of megamergers. The Department of Justice is probing the marketing of three drugs inherited from Schering-Plough, Merck disclosed to the SEC in a recent filing. The feds have issued a subpoena for information on Temodar, the brain cancer treatment, and two hepatitis C drugs, Peg-Intron and Intron-A.
The subpoena is part of "a federal health care investigation under criminal statutes," Merck said in the filing (as quoted by Reuters), and it covers information from January 2004 to the present. The company told the SEC it is cooperating with the probe.
Merck isn't alone, of course; government investigations continue to multiply as the feds crack down on off-label marketing, not to mention other potential violations. Just last month, the DoJ asked Cephalon for documents in a probe of potential off-label marketing of the leukemia drug Treanda; the company has already paid $375 million to settle a Provigil off-label marketing probe..... Continue Reading...
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