Amgen pays $10bn for Onyx
AMGEN has struck a deal to buy cancer drug maker Onyx Pharmaceuticals for about $10.4bn (£6.4bn), as it moves to restock its product pipeline in response to declining sales of its flagship anaemia drugs.
The acquisition – which ends a two-month-long auction of Onyx – represents the fifth-largest biotechnology deal in history. It gives Amgen full rights to Kyprolis, the new multiple myeloma drug that analysts expect to reach annual peak sales in excess of $2bn. The world’s largest biotechnology company will also gain a revenue stream from the liver and kidney cancer drug Nexavar that Onyx shares with Bayer.