Amgen ($AMGN) wants Onyx Pharmaceuticals ($ONXX) so much that it reportedly raised its bid this week 10 bucks a share to $130, valuing the company at $9.5 billion and driving out other interested parties. Not so, CEO Tony Coles said Thursday--at least the part about there not being any other potential buyers still in the auction.
Onyx CEO Tony Coles |
Coles didn't name names, and he may just be trying to better his negotiating leverage with Amgen, but during a conference call Thursday he said, "The process is ongoing with multiple parties currently engaged in discussions," Bloomberg reported.
The whole deal started in June when Onyx rebuffed a $120-per-share bid from Amgen. That news drew interest from AstraZeneca ($AZN), Novartis ($NVS) and Pfizer ($PFE), Bloomberg has reported. This week, there were reports that Amgen had upped its bid by $10 a share, pushing others to the sidelines. The takeover rumors earlier drove Onyx' share price to $136, but it has since fallen back, trading off early today at $127.11.
The draw in all of this is blood-cancer treatment Kyprolis. It is forecast to hit sales of $1 billion by 2016 and as much as $3 billion by 2022. Onyx also gets royalties on drugs it markets in partnership with Bayer--the liver cancer treatment Nexavar and stomach cancer therapy Stivarga.
All of the heated interest is for a company that Thursday reported revenues of $153 million for the quarter and a loss of $29 million, or 40 cents a share. Sales of Kyprolis were $61 million for the quarter, the company reported.
- here's the earnings release
- see the Bloomberg story
Special Reports: Tony Coles - The 25 most influential people in biopharma today - 2013 | Kyprolis - Top 20 orphan drugs by 2018