LONDON (Reuters) - Shares in pharmaceutical firm Shire erased gains in afternoon trade on Tuesday, with traders citing a report that U.S. peer Allergan, which had been rumoured to be interested in buying the UK firm, is instead looking to sell itself.
Allergan is exploring a sale to Sanofi or Johnson & Johnson in order to fend off a takeover bid by Valeant, Bloomberg reported, citing people with knowledge of the matter. This would rule out a purchase of Shire.
"(This) seems to dent the idea of Allergen looking at deal for Shire as reported last evening," David Corben, a trader at SpreadEx, said.
Shire, which had traded as much as 6.2 percent higher on Tuesday, was down 0.3 percent by 1450 BST.
(Reporting by Alistair Smout; Editing by Francesco Canepa)