Johnson & Johnson Sues Amgen
In 1999, Johnson & Johnson (J&J) sued Amgen over their 14-year alliance to sell a blood-enhancing treatment called erythropoietin. The disagreement began when unforeseen competitive changes in the marketplace and mistrust between the partners began to strain the relationship. The relationship had begun in the mid-1980s with J&J helping to commercialize Amgen's blood-enhancing treatment, but the partners ended up squabbling over sales rights and a spin-off drug.
J&J booked most of the sales of its version of the $3.7 billion medicine by selling it for chemotherapy and other broader uses, whereas Amgen was left with the relatively smaller dialysis market. Moreover, the companies could not agree on future products for the JV. Amgen won the right in arbitration to sell a chemically similar medicine that can be taken weekly rather than daily. Arbitrators ruled that the new formulation was different enough to fall outside the licensing pact between Amgen and J&J.
-What could these companies have done before forming the alliance to have mitigated the problems that arose after the alliance was formed? Why do you believe they may have avoided addressing
these issues at the outset?

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The Answer of Johnson & Johnson Sues Amgen
In 1999, Johnson & Johnson (J&J) sued Amgen over their 14-year alliance to sell a blood-enhancing treatment called erythropoietin. The disagreement began when unforeseen competitive changes in the marketplace and mistrust between the partners began to strain the relationship. The relationship had begun in the mid-1980s with J&J helping to commercialize Amgen's blood-enhancing treatment, but the partners ended up squabbling over sales rights and a spin-off drug.
J&J booked most of the sales of its version of the $3.7 billion medicine by selling it for chemotherapy and other broader uses, whereas Amgen was left with the relatively smaller dialysis market. Moreover, the companies could not agree on future products for the JV. Amgen won the right in arbitration to sell a chemically similar medicine that can be taken weekly rather than daily. Arbitrators ruled that the new formulation was different enough to fall outside the licensing pact between Amgen and J&J.
-What could these companies have done before forming the alliance to have mitigated the problems that arose after the alliance was formed? Why do you believe they may have avoided addressing
these issues at the outset?