Biotech Confab: First Look at Today's News

SAN FRANCISCO -- The J.P. Morgan Healthcare conference kicked off this morning and there's already news to report: A takeover proposal from Sequenom(SQNM Quote), corporate updates from Vertex Pharmaceuticals(VRTX Quote), Human Genome Sciences(HGSI Quote) and Cubist Pharmaceuticals(CBST Quote), and new hepatitis C drug data from InterMune(ITMN Quote).

Genetics test maker Sequenom made an unsolicited, all-stock $41 million offer to acquire Exact Sciences(EXAS Quote), a struggling maker of a genetic test to detect colon cancer.

The Sequenom proposal, announced Friday night, values Exact Sciences at $1.50 a share, a 51% premium to the stock's Friday close of 99 cents.

Sequenom is developing a non-invasive genetic test that uses a blood sample from a pregnant woman to determine whether her child has Down syndrome. The company seeks to buy Exact Sciences to expand into non-invasive genetic screening for cancer.

Exact Sciences owns technology that allows doctors to identify colon cancer from genetic markers found in a patient's stool. The company has struggled, however, due to disappointing sales of its colon cancer test, sold by diagnostics maker LabCorp(LH Quote).

Shares of Exact Sciences have fallen from more than $3 a share one year ago. The company announced last spring that it was restructuring and seeking a strategic partner. There has been no comment fro Exact Science's management team yet on the Sequenom offer.

Sequenom hopes to launch its Down syndrome screening test, known as SeQureDx, later this year. The proposal to acquire Exact Sciences comes just a couple of weeks before the company is expecting to announce -- in late January -- new and highly anticipated genetic testing results that will give more insight into the accuracy of the SeQureDx Down syndrome test.