Amgen has agreed to buy the biopharmaceutical company Nuevolution AB for 1.61 billion Swedish crowns ($166.8 million) to boost its position in drug discovery.

Nuevolution said its board unanimously recommended Amgen’s cash offer of 32.5 Swedish crowns per share, a premium of 168.6% to Nuevolution’s closing price on Tuesday, reported Reuters.

The offer from Amgen follows a successful collaboration between Nuevolution and Amgen which started in October 2016. Amgen had exercised opt-in rights for two cancer treatment approaches that have emerged from the alliance.

“We have conducted a comprehensive analysis to ensure that we are acting in the best interest of the company and the shareholders. Considering the significant premium and the undertakings from the three largest shareholders to accept the offer, our conclusion is that the offer is fair and we are unanimous in the decision to recommend the offer of SEK 32.50 per share,” said Stig Løkke Pedersen, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Nuevolution in a comment to Reuters.

“Personally, I am excited about this opportunity”

“Going forward and provided that the transaction goes through, Amgen wishes to keep Nuevolution in its strongest setup, and Nuevolution will play a key role together with our many coming colleagues at Amgen. We will join efforts in discovery of small molecule (tablet) based medicines, where Nuevolution will continue its operations from Copenhagen, whereabout 50 people from about 10 countries are working today,” said Alex Haahr Gouliaev, CEO of Nuevolution to Nordic Life Science. “Personally, I am excited about this opportunity, and I  think that we should collectively be proud about this. It is the result of many people’s effort and professional and private investor’s support over many years.”

About Nuevolution

The biopharmaceutical company Nuevolution was founded in 2001, and has the goal to deliver medicines for the treatment of cancer and inflammatory diseases. Nuevolution has a patent protected drug research platform to identify small-molecule drug candidates to be taken as pills against cancer and inflammatory diseases.Their business model has a primary focus on monetization and risk minimization, achieved through several internal programs developed in parallel with each other. The company’s headquarters are located in Copenhagen, Denmark. Nuevolution AB is listed on NASDAQ Stockholm and has 40 employees.

Photo: Nuevolution

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