(RTTNews) -  Billionaire investor Carl Icahn filed a preliminary proxy statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, seeking to elect five of his handpicked nominees to the Board of Directors of Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc. (AMLN: News ).

Icahn's move is pursuant to Eastbourne Capital Management, L.L.C.'s similar proxy filing, supporting the nomination of five of its nominees to the Amylin Board. The private investor, which holds 12.5% of the medical company, has named Kathleen Behrens, Marina Bozilenko, Charles Fleischman, William Nuerge, and Jay Sherwood as its director nominees.

Icahn and parties hold in aggregate 12.97 million shares, representing about 9.21% of Amylin shares. Icahn's nominees are Dr. Alexander Denner, Dr. Thomas Deuel, Jules Haimovitz, Dr. Peter Liebert, and Dr. David Sidransky. Amylin's Board currently consists of 12 directors, including Chairman Joseph Cook, Jr., and President and Chief Executive Officer Daniel Bradbury.

The move has purportedly set up a three-way proxy fight between two dissident investors and the pharma company, with the prospect of shareholders at the Annual meeting set to receive three sets of proxy cards for electing the 12-member board.

Icahn was instrumental in ousting Yahoo Inc.'s ex-CEO Jerry Yang, in the aftermath of the failed Microsoft Corp. (MSFT)-Yahoo deal last year.

The San Diego, California-based Amylin is the maker of the diabetes injection Byetta, or exenatide, which it markets in partnership with Eli Lilly & Co. (LLY). The company also manufactures other diabetes drugs, like Symlin, or pramlintide acetate, injection, as well as obesity-treatment drugs.
Further, in the SEC filing, Icahn urged Amylin shareholders not to sign any proxy card sent by the company, and revoke them if already done so. It noted that the pharma company had already been informed of its nomination intention in the January 30 letter.

Icahn, in the filing, also stated his intention to introduce a resolution seeking for a change in the corporate domicile of the company from Delaware to North Dakota. According to Icahn, "North Dakota is the most stockholder-friendly jurisdiction in the United States and that being incorporated there and subject to the North Dakota Act would give the stockholders considerably more protection against management entrenchment and would make it easier for third parties to successfully bid for the Corporation."

In another development, Amylin is reportedly trying to soothe investor concerns that its long-acting diabetes drug does not have the same cancer risk as was observed in Bagsvaerd, Denmark-based rival Novo Nordisk A/S's (NVO: News ) liraglutide. Earlier this month, drug maker Novo revealed that FDA's Endocrinologic and Metabolic Drugs Advisory Committee was undecided on the risk profile of type 2 diabetes drug liraglutide, a once-daily human GLP-1 analogue. Amylin stockholders reacted after news spread that a link between thyroid cancer in animals and Novo's liraglutide was found during a FDA advisory panel meeting last week.

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