Company: Amylin Pharmaceuticals

LONDON (Reuters) - Biotech companies are fighting back in an unequal battle with Big Pharma, helped by a small but powerful cohort of investors who dominate the companies' share registers.

Diabetes drug maker Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc. said Thursday that sales of its new drug Bydureon totaled $6.9 million in the first quarter, missing analysts' estimates.

Shares of diabetes drug maker Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc. jumped Monday after a report the company is reaching out to potential buyers about a possible sale.

Amylin Pharmaceuticals, which spurned a $3.5 billion takeover bid from Bristol-Myers Squibb and is fending off a lawsuit from activist investor Carl Icahn, started reaching out to potential buyers last week, sources familiar with the situation said on Sunday.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc <AMLN.O>, which spurned a $3.5 billion takeover bid from Bristol-Myers Squibb Co <BMY.N> and is fending off activist investor Carl Icahn, is exploring a sale, sources familiar with the situation said on Sunday.

Shares of Amylin Pharmaceuticals rose as much as 51 percent on Wednesday after the company rejected a $3.5 billion unsolicited takeover bid from Bristol-Myers Squibb.

Stocks cut most of their earlier losses, but still finished in negative territory Monday as ongoing worries over the euro zone debt crisis kept investors from fully jumping in.