Medicines Co. jumps on rumors of a multibillion-dollar buyout

The Medicines Company CEO Clive Meanwell

Drugmaker the Medicines Company ($MDCO) saw its shares rise as high as 14% on rumors that the company may be up for sale.

Bloomberg, citing unnamed sources, reported that the New Jersey company has enlisted advisers and reached out to potential acquirers, adding that the process is in its early stages and may ultimately lead to nothing.

The Medicines Company's shares shot up on the report, eventually settling at roughly 6% above their opening value on Wednesday. The company commands a market value of about $2.3 billion.

The drugmaker is pushing forward with a pipeline of treatments for cardiovascular and infectious diseases in hopes of balancing generic competition for Angiomax, a top-selling heart treatment that came off patent last year.

Over the past two years, the Medicines Company picked up three FDA approvals, starting with the antibiotic Orbactiv in 2014 and followed by Raplixa, a spray-on sealant designed to stem bleeding during surgery; Ionsys, a once-abandoned drug-device combo that delivers fentanyl under the skin to treat postoperative pain; and Kengreal, a long-delayed blood thinner used after surgery.

The company has since been working in the field of high cholesterol, touting the Phase I MDCO-216 and ALN-PCSsc, an Alnylam ($ALNY)-partnered RNAi therapy that promises to best blockbusters in waiting from Amgen ($AMGN) and partners Sanofi ($SNY) and Regeneron ($REGN). The Medicines Company is also in the midst of Phase III development with Carbavance, a combination antibiotic, and Phase I trials with an anesthetic called ABP-700.

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