ASTRA ZENECA, Britain’s second-largest drugs company, is thought to have made $4 billion (£2.6 billion) bid for an American rival that specialises in diabetes treatments.
Astra is among a pack of big pharmaceutical groups vying to buy Amilyn, which is exploring a sale after rejecting a bid approach from Bristol-Myers Squibb, a large American drugs developer.
The latter is thought to have made a fresh offer for Amylin, while others in the frame include Sanofi, Merck and Astra.
All the offers are said to be above $25 a share. At that level, Amylin is valued at about $4 billion. Its shares, which are listed on Nasdaq, closed at $26.73 on Friday, suggesting the market expects a battle for control of the company.
Astra is keen to find acquisitions to replace the sales that will disappear as its existing medicines lose patent protection. This problem is affecting most of the world’s largest pharma groups and has resulted in several high-profile deals in recent years.
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The battle over Amylin comes as Astra undergoes a big boardroom shake-up. Leif Johansson, who took up his role as Astra’s new chairman on Friday, said that the company faces a period of “significant change”. Its shares closed on Friday at £25.92, valuing it at £32.7 billion.
His first task will be to find a new chief executive following the departure of David Brennan, who had held the role for six years. Simon Lowth, finance director, is running the business until a replacement is found. He is regarded as a possible contender to take the job permanently.
Under Brennan, Astra cut costs aggressively and returned billions of pounds to investors through share buybacks.
However, the group, which generated sales last year of $33.6 billion, has struggled to develop new drugs. This has led it to look for acquisitions and form partnerships with other developers. About 40% of the drugs in its development pipeline were discovered by scientists outside the company.
Astra’s most notable recent achievement was gaining approval for Brilinta, a blood-thinning drug for heart attack victims, but analysts argue that sales of the new treatment have been very slow to take off.
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The company’s best-selling drug is Crestor, a treatment for lowering cholesterol. It faces competition from generic alternatives from 2016.
Its Seroquel anti-psychotic drug has already lost patent protection, while Nexium, another big seller used to treat heartburn, goes off patent in two years.
The group was formed in 1998 through the merger of Zeneca, which had been part of the old ICI conglomerate, with Astra of Sweden.