Amgen is near a deal to buy Onyx Pharmaceuticals, a maker of cancer-fighting drugs, for about $125 a share, people briefed on the matter said on Saturday.
A deal â€" which would be worth more than $10 billion â€" could be announced as soon as Monday, though these people cautioned that talks are ongoing and could still fall apart.
If a transaction is completed, Amgen will have emerged victorious from a contest that it kicked off. In June, the biotech giant made an unsolicited bid for Onyx valued at $120 a share, about 38 percent higher than the target company’s price at the time.
But Onyx rebuffed the approach and hired the investment bank Centerview Partners to run a sales process. A number of drug makers had expressed interest, including Pfizer and Novartis, but analysts considered Amgen as perhaps the most likely buyer.
Behind the attraction of Onyx is the company’s cancer drugs, two of which won approval last year. The crown jewel is Kyprolis, a drug for multiple myeloma that was approved last July and which Onyx fully owns.
Several analysts expect sales of Kyprolis to reach $2 billion a year, providing a tremendous boost for Onyx’s growth. The company reported $362.2 million in revenue in 2012, mostly from its share of the proceeds from the drugs it shares with Bayer.
A brief hiccup in the discussions emerged last week when Amgen demanded to see more clinical trial data for Kyprolis, people briefed on the discussions have said. Amgen sought to lower its bid price below $130 a share because of the dispute.
Shares of Onyx closed on Friday at $116.96.
