Onyx rejects Amgen – seeks new suitors
pharmafile | July 2, 2013 | News story | Sales and Marketing | Amgen, Onyx
Amgen’s advances for Onyx have been knocked back as the biotech firm says it is now seeking new suitors.
Onyx said it will not accept Amgen’s $10 billion bid, saying that the US firm’s offer ‘significantly undervalued’ the company, which works out at $120 a share.
In a statement, Onyx said it is now receiving ‘expressions of interest’ from other potential buyers. “We are actively exploring the potential to combine Onyx with another company,” said the firm’s chief executive Tony Coles.
The cancer drug specialist, which has a co-development deal with Bayer for the liver and kidney cancer medicine Nexavar, made $362 million in sales last year. Onyx also co-markets Stivarga for stomach cancer with Bayer, while marketing its own blood-cancer drug Kyprolis.
Sources close to the deal told Bloomberg that Onyx has already solicited interest from at least two pharma companies involved in oncology since Amgen’s offer.
Given its established partnership with Bayer, many are speculating that the German firm will soon put in a bid – but Bayer says it will not comment on any potential deal.
Other potential buyers active in oncology include fellow cancer drug specialist Celgene, and potentially Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline, which reportedly considered bidding for the firm several years’ ago.
Lori Melancon, an Onyx spokeswoman, told Bloomberg: “Although we’ve reached out to these companies who have previously expressed interest, which does not signify that the company will be sold. We could remain an independent company.”
Leerink Swann analysts said in an investor note that Onyx is among a limited number of smaller drugmakers with enough revenue and revenue potential to ‘move the needle’ for big pharma companies.
Amgen is currently the world’s largest biotech company by sales, with Onyx the fifteenth largest, again by sales.
A $10 billion acquisition of Onyx would be one of the biggest deals for the firm, coming only second to its 2001 purchase of Immunex for just under $17 billion.
Ben Adams
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