Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc. (AMLN), which rejected a $3.5 billion unsolicited takeover offer from Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (BMY) in late March, has reportedly hired advisers to seek a sale of the company, reports said Sunday.
Early this month, activist investor Carl Icahn had filed a lawsuit against the diabetes drug maker to put pressure on it to pursue a deal to sell the company. Icahn owns about 9 percent of Amylin's shares.
Reports sugest that Credit Suisse Group AG and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. have been hired by the maker of Bydureon and Byetta as financial advisers on a potential sale. The company is said to have begun approaching potential buyers last week.
Several drugmakers, including France's Sanofi (SNY), could be mulling an offer for Amylin. Sanofi, though is discussing a bid internally, is said to be hesitant because Byetta will directly compete with the French drugmaker's experimental treatment lixisenatide.
AMLN closed on Friday at $22.92, down $0.15 or 0.66 percent, on a volume of 3.42 million shares.
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