There's No ME in aMYlin
Imagine my surprise when I got an email over the weekend from "Diabetic Investor" newsletter editor David Kliff informing me that Amylin Pharmaceuticalsis quoting me in a letter to shareholders.
AMLN is engaged in an escalating proxy fight with billionaire activist investor Carl Icahnand another big investment firm, Eastbourne. The challengers want to install their own people on the Board of Directors and to presumably sell the company.
Amylin says maintaining the status quo and staying the course is the way to go. And the letter Kliff was telling me about is just the latest salvo.
As the May 27th shareholder meeting and the vote get closer the rhetoric is heating up.
For example, in the new letter Amylin says (all in caps and boldface type), "DO NOT BE MISLED BY ICAHN AND EASTBOURNE. THEIR ONLY PLAN IS TO SELL THE COMPANY AT THE WRONG TIME.". By the way, I think it's worth noting that AMLN put "at the wrong time" in there.
Anyway, while on the one hand I guess I'm flattered, on the other I'm a bit uncomfortable. I'm a reporter. I just cover the story. I don't want to become part of it. Ever.
I want to make absolutely clear to anyone who might try to misinterpret the use of my name in the SEC filingthat the quote does not reflect my opinion of Amylin or Byetta or its prospects as a once-a-week injection for diabetes. It was lifted from my on-air CNBC coverage last week of the company's filing for FDA approval of once-a-week Byetta. Amylin is partners with Eli Lillyand Alkermes on the product.
If you read the quote you'll notice that I source the projections for once-a-week Byetta's sales potential to analysts. It is not my analysis or my opinion. In journalism it's called attribution.
Interestingly, in a subsequent press release issued Monday morningabout the new SEC filing containing the letter to shareholders there's now a supporting quote, in addition to mine, from an actual analyst.
I certainly don't object to being quoted. After all, that's what I do...quote people. I simply don't want Amylin's use of my quote to be misconstrued by anyone that it in any way means I'm taking sides here. I am not. I would never.
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