Abraxis BioScience Plans Share Repurchases

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Abraxis BioScience Inc. on Tuesday said its directors authorized a program to repurchase up to $100 million of the company’s common stock.

Chief Executive Patrick Soon-Shiong said the board believes the company’s stock is undervalued and a share repurchase was a good use of its cash at this time. The Los Angeles maker of the Abraxane cancer drug had $306 million in cash at the end of 2008. Its share price as of Monday’s market close was down 25 percent from a year ago.

Soon-Shiong, through family trusts and direct holdings, controls roughly 58 percent of shares in the company he founded.

Share repurchases will be funded by internal cash resources and will be made through open market purchases, the company said.

Abraxis also is deploying its cash via investments in other companies. Expression Pathology Inc., a Rockville, Md., biotech, said late Monday that Abraxis had led a $6.5 million financing of the company. Expression Pathology is developing techniques for discovery and analysis of protein biomarkers in tissue, which can help track how a tumor is responding to a drug.

Abraxis shares were up $2.55, or 5.6 percent, to $47.61 in midday trading on the Nasdaq.

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