ImClone agrees $6b Eli Lilly purchase

ImClone Systems Inc has agreed to be acquired by Eli Lilly and Co for about $6.1 billion after rebuffing a sweetened takeover offer from Bristol-Myers, sources familiar with the situation said on Monday.

The agreement, which values ImClone at $70 per share, has been approved by the boards of both ImClone and Eli Lilly, sources said. Last week, Eli Lilly made a formal offer to buy ImClone, which makes the cancer drug Erbitux, for $70 a share, topping Bristol-Myers' offer of $62 per share for the 83 percent of ImClone it does not already own.

After rejecting Bristol-Myers, ImClone's Chairman Carl Icahn had stoked interest about a new suitor and said a "mystery bidder" was in talks to acquire ImClone.