Moody's Places Amgen Debt on Review

Last week's Food and Drug Administration advisory panel on Amgen's(AMGN Quote) Aranesp for chemotherapy-induced anemia led one debt rating agency to rethink the drugmaker's debt rating.

Moody's placed the Thousand Oaks, Calif.- based company's A2 long-term and Prime-1 short term ratings -- approximately $11.2 billion of rated debt -- under review for possible downgrade on Monday.

Last week an FDA advisory panel recommended that anemia drugs such as Aranesp and Johnson & Johnson's(JNJ Quote) Procrit be further limited in their use in cancer patients, based on evidence of negative side effects.

The panel determined the drugs should not be used in patients with metastatic breast cancer or cancer of the head and neck, and voted to bar the use of anemia drugs in cancer patients with "curative" disease. The panel did vote against entirely restricting the use of anemia drugs in cancer, and also voted down a suggestion that the drug only be used in patients with small cell lung cancer. ...