To Buy or Not to Buy

At Forbes's Science Business blog Matthew Herper wonders whether Amgen should acquire Human Genome Sciences. Biotech analyst Geoffrey Porges says it should, and that the price tag could be as high as $6.5 billion. Porges points out that Benlysta, Human Genome's lupus drug, is "one of the hotter biotech products" and that Amgen has more to offer Human Genome than GlaxoSmithKline, which has the rights to co-market Benlysta, does. "[Porges] argues that Amgen could do a lot more for Human Genome than Glaxo could, by immediately increasing manufacturing capacity, an existing sales force that visits the rheumatologists and dermatologists," Herper writes.