IRISH-AMERICAN cholesterol drug developer Amarin is to retain a financial adviser to review future prospects after fielding calls from more than a dozen interested parties, chief executive Joe Zakrzewski said yesterday.
Amarin has two final-stage human tests of its most-advanced experimental drug, AMR101 for high cholesterol.
Mr Zakrzewski said the company plans to present phase III results from one of the studies in April at the American College of Cardiology meeting.
Results from the second trial may be reported in the second quarter of 2011, he said.
“Amarin will rapidly become an acquisition candidate following the results of Anchor [the second trial], which could lead to a buyout in 2011,” said Duane Nash, an analyst with Wedbush Securities in San Francisco, in a research report last month.
Drugmakers led by Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Merck already make cholesterol pills and may be interested in buying Amarin, Jon LeCroy, an analyst with Hapoalim Securities in New York, said.
Mr LeCroy said the drug may have peak annual sales of $1 billion, which would make the company worth about $4 billion in an acquisition.
There have been 3,238 announced acquisitions in the pharmaceutical industry in the past five years, with an average value of $251.3 million and a typical premium of 23 per cent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Amarin’s American depositary receipts, each representing one ordinary share, rose 52 cents, or 5.9 per cent, to $9.33 at 4 p.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading.
Amarin’s drug may entice buyers because it has minimal risk of rejection by regulators and there is “a growing need for large pharmaceutical companies to augment their cardiovascular drug portfolios”, Mr Nash said.
AMR101 is an omega-3 fatty acid sourced from certain fish oils and would compete with GlaxoSmithKline’s Lovaza, the only similar prescription drug approved in the US. Lovaza generated sales of $703 million in 2009 and is due to come off patent shortly.
Mr Zakrzewski said his treatment may be safer than Lovaza. – (Bloomberg)
