Genzyme has said it intends to sweeten its offer for Canadian drug company AnorMed to more than $12 a share but has still failed to win support for its bid.

AnorMed has already agreed a friendly takeover deal with Millennium Pharmaceuticals at $12 a share, and said in a statement that Genzyme’s new offer had not been formally tendered.

Until that time, AnorMed’s management will continue to recommend Millennium’s offer as offering ‘fair and certain value for our shareholders’, said the company’s chief executive Kevin Galbraith.

Genzyme had originally offered $8.55 a share for AnorMed, equivalent to around $380 million, but Millennium’s $515 million broadside last week blew that bid out of the water. Analysts have suggested that this is a premium offer, and may be stretching Millennium’s resources a little thin.

Both companies are trying to get their hands on AnorMed's lead drug Mozobil (AMD3100), in Phase III testing and used to facilitate stem cell transplants in cancer patients, as well as an HIV entry inhibitor AMD070 which is in Phase II.