Amylin fight: Byetta fall-out

Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc., a Delaware chartered company with its headquarters in San Diego, Calif., will hold its annual shareholders meeting May 27.

It could be a contentious affair. On March 30, the SEC gave "no action" relief to each of two activist shareholders that will allow them to include each other's nominees on their own proxy cards -- to present a unified opposition slate, so to speak. So that unified opposition slate now includes 10 nominees for the 12 seats on the board.

Last year, Amylin's diabetes drug Byetta (which the company co-markets with Eli Lilly) became the subject of highly publicized safety concerns. The FDA said that it was working on a stronger warning label for the drug, and the value of Amylin stock, which had been moving close to $35, dropped to below $20 within the month.

Here's a link to a stock chart that includes that that precipitous drop.

You'll also see from that chart that though the price briefly regained its equilibrium at $20, it resumed a downward drift by early October. That can' really be held against the leadership of the company, though, because all US equities headed south last October.

More recently, good news about Byetta has enabled the stock to make a modest recovery.

I'll say something about the blow-by-blow of the proxy fight tomorrow.