Bids value Amylin at up to $4.7B, Bloomberg reports

The latest on Amylin Pharmaceuticals' sales process: Four first-round bids. Four Big Pharma suitors. Offers ranging from $25 to $29 per share, valuing the company at up to $4.7 billion.

As Bloomberg reports, AstraZeneca ($AZN), Sanofi ($SNY), Merck ($MRK) and Bristol-Myers Squibb ($BMY) remain in the running for Amylin ($AMLN). Pfizer ($PFE) dropped out, the news service's sources said, after putting in a bid at the low end of the range. The stock was trading at around $27.30 this morning.

Even at the low end, these bids beat Bristol-Myers' $22-per-share offer, which touched off the entire process. After rejecting Bristol-Myers' offer, Amylin opened up for offers. Now, Amylin is preparing for a second round of bidding, with offers due by the end of June, Bloomberg's sources said.

So, by July, we may discover which of the suitors wanted Amylin most. All of them have diabetes franchises with sales teams that could presumably pump up sales of Amylin's Byetta and Bydureon drugs--and realize cost savings from integrating operations. The two drugs could bring in as much as $1.5 billion annually, Cowen & Co.'s Phil Nadeau told Bloomberg.

- read the Bloomberg story
- get more from the Telegraph