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Genentech, OSI to pay $67M over cancer drug allegations
SAN FRANCISCO – Federal prosecutors in San Francisco say Genentech and OSI Pharmaceuticals have agreed to pay $67 million to settle allegations they misled doctors about the effectiveness of a cancer drug.
The U.S. attorney’s office in Northern California announced the settlement on Monday.
It came in a whistleblower lawsuit over the drug Tarceva.
The pharmaceutical companies were accused of making misleading statements about Tarceva between January 2006 and December 2011.
According to a lawsuit, there was little evidence the drug was effective to treat certain lung cancer patients unless they never smoked or had a particular mutation.
Neither company acknowledged wrongdoing.
Genentech spokeswoman Holli Kolkey said the company believes its promotional communications for Tarceva were legal.
Astellas Pharma said the alleged misconduct preceded its acquisition of OSI, and it decided to resolve the matter to move forward.
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