US drug manufacturer Eli Lily & Co. has reached a deal with Imclone Systems Inc according to which it will buy the biotechnology company for more than $6 billion.

On Monday, Eli Lily announced that its offer of $70 a share in cash had been accepted by Imclone Systems which had earlier rejected two takeover bids from Bristol-Myers Squibb Co as too low. Lily’s offer was 7.7% higher than Friday’s closing price of Imclone and over 50% more than its July bid before Bristol-Myers made the first offer. With more than 87 million shares outstanding as of August 1, 2008, the acquisition price was likely to reach $6.1 billion even as Lily officials announced that the deal had been priced at $6.5 billion.

The acquisition of Imclone Systems is expected to extend Lily’s line of cancer treatment drugs by significant additions. Among those identified by Lily as particularly promising are three Imclone drug candidates, IMC-112B, IMC-A12 and IMC-11F8. Among the frontline cancer drugs from Lily are Erbitux which is used for the treatment of colorectal as well as neck and head cancers, Alimta which is used for mesothelioma treatment and lung cancers as well as the chemotherapy agent Gemzar.