Amgen said to raise bid for Onyx Pharma to $130 a share

Amgen Inc, the world's largest biotechnology company, is said to have raised its buyout offer for Onyx Pharmaceuticals Inc to $130 a share, a month after the maker of Nexavar cancer drug had rejected its $120 a share offer.

The $130 offer is currently the highest bid on the table for Onyx, Bloomberg yesterday reported, citing a person familiar with the matter.

In early July, the board of Onyx, had rejected Amgen's unsolicited $10-billion in cash takeover bid saying that the offer significantly undervalued the company and its prospects, and added that it has received expressions of interest from other potential buyers.

The report said that Amgen raised its offer after reviewing Onyx's non-public financial statements. The company is scheduled to report second quarter results today.

Several reports had in late July speculated that other bidders like Novartis, Pfizer and AstraZeneca may enter the race for Onyx (See: Pharma giants target biotech firm Onyx).

Onyx shares closed yesterday at $132.02 on Nasdaq and had traded as high as $136.87 last month, an indication that investors are expecting a higher bid than the $120 a share tabled in late June by Amgen, which was a 34-per cent premium to Onyx then closing share price.

With a market cap of $9.6 billion, South San Francisco, California-based Onyx develops innovative therapies for treating cancer.

Its key drugs are Nexavar, for treating patients with advanced cancer in the kidney and liver, and Kyprolis, a proteasome inhibitor for treating patients with multiple myeloma.

In has in the pipeline Sorafenib, which has been evaluated in a Phase 3 trial for treating thyroid cancer, and is currently being evaluated in late-stage studies in breast cancer and as an add-on treatment for liver and kidney cancer following surgery.

Sorafenib is developed and marketed in collaboration with Bayer HealthCare.

Carfilzomib is being studied in multiple clinical trials either as a single-agent or in combination with other therapies for the treatment of patients with multiple myeloma, and Palbociclib, a collaboration with Pfizer and currently in Phase 3 clinical development for hematologic malignancies and solid tumors.

Onyx would receive milestone and royalty payments on Palbociclib worldwide sales.

Also in the pipeline is ONX 0914, an immunoproteasome inhibitor for treating autoimmune disorders, such as rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease and lupus.

A completed transaction would be the second mega deal this year in the life sciences sector, after Thermo Fisher Scientific acquired Life Technologies Corp for $13.6 billion.