France denies contact with Eli Lilly over reported $17.5 billion Abivax deal

By Alessandro Parodi and Mathieu Rosemain Jan 12 (Reuters) – France's Finance Ministry said on Monday it had received no formal request for investment approval regarding French biotech Abivax and had no contact with U.S. pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly, contradicting a media report that Eli Lilly was preparing a 15 billion euro ($17.5 billion) bid for the company. Shares in Abivax rose by over 1,600% last year following positive Phase 3 trial results for its ulcerative colitis drug obefazimod. They were up another 33% following Thursday's report, before falling back after comments from a ministry official. Abivax shares were trading up 3.6% at 1538 GMT. Eli Lilly shares were down 0.5%. French media La Lettre had reported in December that a delegation from Eli Lilly met France's Finance Ministry in December a in Paris to discuss the deal. La Lettre said on Monday that Eli Lilly was ready to buy Abivax for 15 billion euros ($17.5 billion), almost double its current market capitalisation. An official at the French Finance Ministry said any investment involving a strategic pharmaceutical company would be subject to mandatory screening by the ministry. "No such request or file has been submitted," the official said, adding the ministry had had no contact with Eli Lilly. Abivax did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. An Eli Lilly spokesperson said the company would not comment on business development activity. Abivax CEO Marc de Garidel, attending the JPMorgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco, told Bloomberg News that big pharma could no longer ignore the company's key drug obefazimod, which he said may become "one of the most-used products in the next decade". "We are concentrating on developing this drug, bring it to the market," de Garidel told BiotechTV. "That's all that matters. The rumours, speculations, we have no control over those." JPMorgan said in a note on Monday that any potential deal would add another late-stage asset to Eli Lilly's pipeline, making the company a more significant competitor in immunology and inflammatory bowel disease. ($1 = 0.8563 euros) (Reporting by Alessandro Parodi in Gdansk and Mathieu Rosemain in Paris, editing by Milla Nissi-Prussak, Anna Pruchnicka and Matt Scuffham)

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