Astellas still hot to buy CV after rejection

CV Therapeutics has once again spurned a takeover offer from Astellas Pharma--which has done nothing to blunt the Japanese company's interest in a takeover.

CV rejected Astellas' $16 per share cash offer in January and once again declined the renewed $1 billion offer on Friday. But Astellas insists that it hasn't lost interest in acquiring the developer.

"We are disappointed that CV Therapeutics' board has rejected our all cash proposal and did not engage us in any discussions as part of their review of our proposal," said Astellas in a statement. "We continue to believe that our proposal provides CV Therapeutics' stockholders excellent immediate value that exceeds what the company could reasonably expect to deliver through their standalone strategy."

CV Therapeutics has experienced disappointments of its own. The company had run into some serious concerns about the safety of its chest pain drug Ranexa. But the FDA gave the drug approval for use as a first-line therapy late last year after CV offered new evidence of the drug's safety and efficacy.

Astellas says now it will examine all options. There's no news yet if that means it will sweeten the bid.

- read the report from Forbes