Amgen Inc. late Tuesday announced a cash tender offer to the shareholders of Nuevolution, a drug discovery company in Copenhagen, Denmark. The offer is set at the equivalent of $3.37 for each share of Nuevolution. The total value for the offer is approximately $167 million. Amgen’s cash offer was a premium of 169 percent to Nuevolution’s closing price Tuesday on Nasdaq Stockholm. Amgen’s offer is contingent on more than 90 percent of Nuevolution shares being tendered. Nuevolution’s directors unanimously recommended that shareholders accept Amgen’s offer, and three of Nuevolution’s major shareholders, owning 59 percent altogether, have already accepted the offer. Well known biotech investors such as Brad Loncar generally had a positive reaction. The Thousand Oaks biotech giant sought out Nuevolution to acquire its programs in the oncology field including its Chemetics program, a drug discovery platform. Most new drugs in oncology are built from large proteins that are expensive to manufacture. Building oncology therapies from smaller molecules, what Nuevolution does, can lessen the time and lower the cost to develop. Amgen and Nuevolution have participated in two collaborative cancer programs since October 2016, both of which have progressed at high speeds, Amgen said. Nuevolution was founded in 2011 and employs 40 full-time professionals; they have partnered with Novartis, Johnson & Johnson, Boehringer Ingelheim, GlaxoSmithKline and Merck & Co. in the past. Shares of Amgen (AMGN) on Wednesday closed up $1.61, or less than one percent, to $171.30 on the Nasdaq.
