Amgen announces takeover of Onyx Pharmaceuticals

Amgen has agreed a deal to acquire the global biopharmaceutical company Onyx Pharmaceuticals, thus substantially strengthening its oncology capabilities.

The two companies' boards of directors have unanimously approved a transaction under which Amgen will purchase Onyx for a total of $10.4 billion (6.7 billion pounds), with the deal expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2013.

Onyx's portfolio includes numerous promising cancer therapies, including an important and growing multiple myeloma franchise led by the US-approved drug Kyprolis, while it has also partnered with Bayer HealthCare on the development of the products Nexavar and Stivarga and with Pfizer on the promising compound palbociclib.

Purchasing the company will be strategically advantageous to Amgen, helping it to expand its position in several important markets.

Robert Bradway, chairman and chief executive officer at Amgen, said: "We believe that Amgen is ideally suited to realise the full potential of Onyx's portfolio and pipeline for the benefit of physicians and patients."

This comes after Amgen completed a cardiovascular product collaboration transaction with Servier earlier this month, allowing the firms to move ahead with the planned alliance.