Abgenix' shareholder OK takeover by Amgen

At a special meeting held March 29, stockholders of Abgenix overwhelmingly approved the acquisition of Abgenix by Amgen, the world's largest biotechnology group. Approximately 71% of the outstanding shares of Abgenix common stock were voted in favor of the transaction. This represents more than 99% of the shares that were voted at the meeting.

At the end of last year, the two firms announced they had entered into an agreement for Amgen to acquire Abgenix for $22.50 per share of Abgenix' common stock plus the assumption of Abgenix debt, for a total consideration of $2.2 billion (Marketletter December 19, 2005). Consummation of the merger is subject to other customary closing conditions and is expected to be completed on April 1.

Abgenix is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development and manufacturing of fully-human therapeutic antibodies. The firm's antibody development platform includes a leading technology and state-of-the-art manufacturing capabilities that enable the rapid generation, selection and production of high affinity, fully-human antibody product candidates to a variety of disease targets.