Icahn brewing a new proxy at Biogen Idec
Biogen Idec Inc., which failed to drum up a buyer late last year after investor Carl Icahn prodded it to explore a sale, is rumored to be eying an acquisition of its own -- and Icahn isn't happy about it.
Icahn made more moves Monday against Biogen. He has nominated three allies to the Biogen board and, citing The Times of London's Genmab A/S rumor, said in a proxy statement he reserved the right to oppose any "toxic" transactions that would make the firm "unattractive to, or [reduce] the number of, future potential buyers."
The Times of London says Danish-American firm Genmab has caught Biogen Idec's attention. Like Biogen, Genmab specializes in monoclonal antibodies, a bioengineered protein that has become the basis for some of the decade's most successful drugs, including Biogen's own rituximab, which started as a non-Hodgkins' lymphoma fighter and has expanded to treat rheumatoid arthritis. It just happens that Genmab's lead drug candidate ofatumumab, or HuMax-CD20, works the same way as rituximab: It blocks the CD20 molecule on the surface of the immune system's B cells, killing the cells. (B-cells run amok are suspected of playing a role in several autoimmune disorders.)
In fact, Genmab and its development partner GlaxoSmithKline plc are testing HuMax-CD20 for similar indications in patients who haven't responded well to rituximab treatment. Glaxo bought 10% of Genmab and the rights to HuMax-CD20 in December 2006 for $460 million. So even if Biogen can convince Icahn of the merits of this deal, Glaxo represents another hurtle to jump.
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