Amgen to buy leukemia drug developer Micromet for $1.16 billion

Amgen Inc, the world's largest biotechnology company, yesterday agreed to buy fellow drug developer Micromet Inc, for $1.16 billion in cash in order to get access to an experimental leukemia drug.

Amgen, based in Thousand Oaks, California, will pay $11 per share, a premium of nearly 33 per cent to Micromet's closing price on 25 January. 

Founded in 1993, Micromet's leading drug candidate, blinatumomab, for the treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, is in phase 2 testing.

Micromet is developing blinatumomab and other drugs by using bispecific T cell engager, or BiTE technology, which are antibodies that bind to both a tumor and to a T cell of the immune system and destroys the tumor.

The drug is still in Phase 2 clinical trial, but results of a small clinical trial of blinatumomab in leukemia, released in December, were promising.

But the drug could take a couple of years before it is submitted for regulatory approval.