SiliconBeat

CV Therapeutics, the Palo Alto maker of the chest-pain treatment drug, Ranexa, said Friday the company’s board turned down an offer to buy it for $16 a share from Japan’s second-largest drug maker, Astellas Pharma.

We posted last month about the first offer Astellas had made in November that was revealed at the same time CV’s board extended by a year its poison-pill protection against unsolicited offers that was to expire Feb. 1. In his letter Astellas Chief Executive Masafumi Nogimori, CV’s own CEO Louis Lange wrote:

The CV Therapeutics board of directors is committed to enhancing value for our stockholders. The board, with the assistance of its financial and legal advisors, has carefully considered your proposal to acquire our company in the context of our strategic plans and the best interests of our stockholders. We concluded that your proposal significantly undervalues CV Therapeutics and its potential growth opportunities and we decline to accept it.

Astellas, formed in 2005 through a merger, has been reported to be eyeing acquisitions to add to its product pipeline.