Days after the rumour mill had Novartis nearing a possible deal for Cytokinetics, a report Thursday in The Wall Street Journal says the Swiss drugmaker's interest appears to have waned. Citing unnamed sources, the report said Novartis, which had been pursuing Cytokinetics for several months, backed away "sometime in the past day or two."
Talks that a potential takeover was in the works first emerged in November, and picked up steam a few weeks later with speculation that both Novartis and AstraZeneca were considering bids for the company.
Shares of Cytokinetics – with a market capitalisation of about $10 billion, as of Wednesday's close – have more than doubled since reports of takeover interest in the company first surfaced. The stock gained 15% this past Monday when WSJ reported that it was in advanced talks with Novartis, although shares have been falling as days passed without an official announcement.
On Thursday, Cytokinetics was down 16% on news that Novartis was shying away from a deal, paring back its market value to $8.3 billion. During Cytokinetics’ early morning presentation at the JP Morgan healthcare conference on Monday, CEO Robert Blum was adamant about not wanting to answer business development-related questions. And at the Swiss drugmaker's presentation this week, CEO Vas Narasimhan suggested that the company is primarily interested in smaller ‘bolt on’ acquisitions.