The Labour leadership candidate headed UK corporate affairs for Amgen in 2008, while it was under investigation in the US for risking patient safety

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Owen Smith, who now faces Jeremy Corbyn in the Labour leadership battle, worked as a lobbyist in the pharmaceutical industry for five years before becoming the MP for Pontypridd in 2010.



After working for the US giant Pfizer, Smith moved to the controversial biotech firm Amgen in 2008. At the time, Amgen was battling an investigation into one of its most successful anaemia drugs, Aranesp.

Amgen was ultimately fined $762m for illegally promoting the drug to cancer patients in a way that increased the likelihood of their deaths. Amgen was hit with the fines after it emerged that the California company was “pursuing profits at the risk of patient safety” as it promoted a non-approved use of Aranesp.

Smith was in charge of corporate affairs, corporate and internal communications and public affairs at the British division of Amgen while the biotech company was being investigated.

The main whistleblower on Aranesp filed her case against Amgen in 2006, sparking a US investigation that took several years to conclude. The whistleblower also claimed that Amgen systematically overfilled vials of the drugs, when selling them in America, which enabled doctors to “pool” the excess amounts.

The doctors were then encouraged to bill Medicare and private insurers for the use of the excess drug, creating a system of “liquid kickbacks” according to one lawyer on the case.

Amgen also produces a drug called erythropoietin – better known as EPO – which it produced under its Epogen brand name. Epogen was connected to the international cycling scandal, which involved cyclists such as Lance Armstrong.

A spokesman for Amgen said: “Prior to progressing his career in politics, Owen served Amgen in the role of corporate affairs director for the UK and Ireland.” Born in Morecambe, Lancashire, Smith is the son of Welsh historian Prof Dai Smith. He was educated at Barry Boys comprehensive school, in south Wales.

After studying history and French at the University of Sussex, Smith spent 10 years working at the BBC. He was a producer on Radio 4’s Today programme and the Welsh political show Dragon’s Eye.

He then became a special adviser to Paul Murphy, the former Northern Ireland secretary. After three years with Murphy, Smith moved to Pfizer, where he was paid a reported £80,000 a year as a lobbyist. He first tried to become an MP at the Blaenau Gwent byelection in 2006, but lost out. He won the ultra-safe Labour seat of Pontypridd four years later.

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After joining parliament, Smith rose through the Labour ranks rapidly, becoming the shadow work and pensions secretary in the first months of Corbyn’s leadership. He resigned in the aftermath of the referendum.

Now 46, Smith ran into controversy this week when he described himself as normal. “I am normal. I grew up in a normal household. I’ve got a wife and three children. My wife is a primary school teacher.”

Colleagues around Smith were aware of his ambitions for several months before he entered the Labour leadership contest. He delayed his entrance into the race as the soft-left option because he had been at the bedside of his ill brother.

He pipped Angela Eagle to the post as the “unity” candidate to run against Jeremy Corbyn.

• This article was amended on 20 July 2016. An earlier version wrongly attributed a quote to a spokesman for Owen Smith. This has been corrected to say a spokesman for Amgen.

