Icahn Boosts Stake in Amylin to 6.5%, Seeks Additional Talks

In a 13D filing on Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (AMLN), Carl Icahn disclosed he raised his stake in the company to 6.54% (8,959,919 shares). This is up from the 6,339,653 share stake Icahn showed in a recent 13F for the quarter ended March 31, 2008.

Icahn disclosed that he recently had discussions with the company's management and intends to have further conversations with management and members of the board of directors to discuss ideas they may have to maximize product sales and development and to enhance shareholder value.

Icahn said he reserves the right to take whatever future action he deems appropriate regarding the company and its securities under the circumstances as they then exist.

Comments

[suep]

Amylin Pharma is selling the first drug since insulin for Type I diabetics. Symlin serves as an excellent control on blood sugar excursions, the main reason why diabetics lose eyesight, why they develop kidney disfunction and heart conditions with early death. The company is also selling Byetta, known for similar results as Symlin for Type II diabetics.

Both drugs also have a most unusual and welcome side effect: weight loss. Before Symlin and Byetta, when did you ever hear of a diabetic losing weight?

Now Amylin is clearing a form of Byetta which will be good for once-weekly dosage, and has built a plant in Ohio to produce it. The drug, Byetta LAR (for "Long-Acting Release) could be on the market next year.

But I think that neither Symlin nor Byetta will make this company become a household name. What will, then? A side-effect free weight loss drug it is working on that may enter the market in 36 months. It has shown weight loss of between 12-18% body weight, and only of fat!

[BioInvestor]

Icahn could well be on to something. My guess is that he'll probably copy--or at least do something similar--to the group that muscled in on Ligand Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: LGND) two years ago. The situations aren't similar, but the outcome could be the same.

He'll likely push to transform AMLN into an R&D play by demanding that products be sold to a major pharma or biotech company. The company might even offload some of the cash generated in the sale in the form of an extraordinary dividend. I'll dig into AMLN's financials a little more.

The weight loss numbers sound good--better than those reported by Arena Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ARNA), which is set to file for marketing approval next year.

[Biotechman]

Amylin is a very good company with alot of peptide library information. The issue with Byetta is that patients only stay on the product less than 6 months, and also many patients do not get that far because of the side effects. Once a week is very interesting, the question is will the trend be substantial greater with the longer acting version. All of Amylin products are injectible this does prove to be a major market barrier. Amylin probably would be better served to merge or grow through strategic purchases (which it probably does not have the time or financial backing). The company is to overexposed to cost its trying to work like a big time drug company but only bringing in half the revenue. So a synergy(merger) with a bigger company would pay rewards in cost immediately. It will not take large amounts of sales reps to sale once a week. The drug will probably speak for itself, the question if approved what is the length of therapy patients stay on and what is the discontinuation rate of the products after starting. Either way the company is probably still over valued, but this could change with continue positive trends in research. One must be aware though of the barrier in injectibles to physicians and patients they do develop injection fatique. This is the reason for lack of sale growth and physicians still are very slow to injections. Its still early in the product life cycle, but I would not anticipate a stellar back half of the year if competing products are launched, this would push holders to merge even quicker or hopes that once a week is far ahead of schedule. I would invest with Amylin with caution and pick up call and puts , if there is a next quarterly number pay attention to growth again after there recent expansion of representatives.

[pharma]

I was AMLN's shareholders from 1998 until 2007.

AMLN's situation is very complex:
- its management is very greedy and incompetent
- Symlin is a niche drug as of now with very limited sale potential
- Byetta is their major product responsible for 90% of AMLN sale and it has a strong competition from Merck's Januvia. Byetta LAR is the most important AMLN program since Byetta competition is coming from all sides.

Finally, Byetta and Byetta LAR are partnered with LLY. This agreement is very complex and not in AMLN favor. In a case of AMLN is taken over by other company, LLY has rights to demand transferring Byetta franchise to them.

Based on my experience (IMCL investor from 1998)with ImClone where Carl is the BOD Chairman, Carl is a greenmailer and knows nothing about complexity of biotech business. If not for IMCL's partner Merck KgaA who does all Erbitux R&D, IMCL would be long ago out of business.

[turdfurgeson]

To say that AMLN's management is greedy and incompetent is an understatement. This is possibly the worst management team in corporate America.