CAN AMGEN EVEN KEEP ITS OWN STORY STRAIGHT?

I keep in touch with Amgen, manufacturer of Prolia in a few different ways.  

Sometimes I call them at their phone number for this purpose: 1.800.772.6436.  There I generally speak with either a nurse or some other medical professional.  There is nothing they can do for me but listen, and that they do very kindly.  They never offer any useful information.  (That, they tell me, is only for my doctor to do!)

Sometimes I write to the President of Amgen, Mr. Robert Bradway.  I'm sure he never reads these letters, but I generally get an answer signed by someone named Gunjan Thiagarajah, who appears -- as far as I can figure out from www.Amgen.com to serve in some sort of marketing function. 

The following is not really about my Prolia-related broken back, but a incident that really leaves me wondering more than ever about Amgen!

On March 25, 2020 I telephoned called Amgen however, to express concern that supplies for patients on Prolia might be interrupted during the current COVID-19 situation.   I spoke with a very nice nurse who identified herself as "Lucy."  

I explained to Lucy that since (as described elsewhere in this blog) a brief delay in my Prolia shot left me with fractures that had pretty much ended my active life, I did not want to risk still more damage if Prolia were not available for my next shot which was to be on April 14. 

 On Sunday April 5 I received a UPS Express envelope containing a letter from Amgen: a single sheet dated April 3, 2020 addressing this issue. It cited Amgen's information source for COVID-19 issues: www.amgen.com/covid-19 and also offered a resource for doctors to find alternative sites of care for Prolia injections www.proliafinder.com. It was signed by the above Gunjan Thiagarajah.  Not the most reassuring letter about my specific concerns but at least it was something.   

But on Monday April 6, 2020, around 5:30 p.m. I actually received a telephone call from a woman who said she was from Amgen.  And it also seemed to come in response to the telephone call I made on March 25th (in which I spoke to Lucy).       

I had a hard time understanding this caller but she spelled out her name and I think it was Sama Hassan.    I could not find this name anywhere on the Amgen.com website.

I may have gotten a return call before in response to a phone call I'd made, but generally I get no response to these calls that I make about once a month.  And certainly not TWO responses! 

As noted, she said she was responding to my call of March 25, 2020, in which I brought Amgen up-to-date on how I was getting along since my Prolia disaster.  

She said she had "material for my doctor" if I would give her my doctor's name.  I said there had been three doctors in two different institutions  involved with my care -- the one who put me on Prolia in 2012, then, after he retired in 2016, the one who came in after my bones had broken because I had been unable to get my regular Prolia shot on time during this change, and finally the doctor I am seeing now.  

But I continued, saying that while I would be glad to give her these names, I first wanted a copy of whatever she was going to send them.    

She said she could not authorize that and would have to check with the the proper people to see if she could do that!  So watch this space!  We might learn what exciting information Amgen imparts to doctors but not to patients!   

I did get my Prolia shot at Northwestern on time on Tuesday, April 14, 2020, but I have yet to figure out what all these calls were about.  And I have yet to get the "doctors only" material from Amgen. Are Amgen's internal processes just as screwed up as they were at the University of Chicago?    I'll never know!