Daiichi Sankyo to buy Ambit Biosciences for $315 million including quizartinib for AML

Daiichi Sankyo Company, Ltd. and Ambit Biosciences , jointly announced that they have entered into a definitive merger agreement under which Daiichi Sankyo will acquire all of the outstanding common stock of Ambit Biosciences for $15 per share in cash through a tender offer followed by a merger with a subsidiary of Daiichi Sankyo, or approximately $315 million on a fully diluted basis. The lead Ambit Biosciences drug candidate, quizartinib, is currently in phase III clinical trials among patients with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML), who express a genetic mutation in FLT3 and who are refractory to or relapsed after first-line treatment with or without hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) consolidation. AML patients with the FLT3 mutation tend to have a poorer prognosis than those whose cancers are FLT3 negative.