Amgen's reported interest in scooping up Switzerland's Actelion for as much as $9.8 billion is taking some heavy fire from its own lines. Derek Taner at Invesco, which has a 1.4 percent stake in the big biotech, has evaluated the risk and potential rewards. And he doesn't like the odds.
"We looked at Actelion a couple of times as an investment idea and I don't see what's hugely compelling," Taner told Bloomberg. He sees some serious risk in the late-stage pipeline and gaining fresh patent life on new molecules is no sure thing, either.
"I would prefer to see smaller, earlier stage acquisitions" rather than purchases of companies with commercial stage products, offered Paul Wagner, the fund manager at RCM Capital, another Amgen investor. "Likewise, if Amgen is looking to expand in emerging markets I would prefer to see that done more organically as opposed to large, potentially expensive and risky bolt-on type acquisitions."
Amgen has plenty of options available for the $17 billion it's hoarding. Roger Perlmutter has already expressed an interest in emerging markets along with ambitious efforts in some new-to-Amgen arenas like cardiology, neuroscience or infectious disease.
- here's the story from Bloomberg
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