Another foreign drug company has made a hostile bid for a smaller U.S. rival. Tokyo's Astellas Pharma Inc. offered $1 billion in January for CV Therapeutics Inc., which has thus far stood firm against the approach. Astellas' bid follows a familiar pattern in the drug world: Licensing partners turn into acquisition targets. Astellas is CVT's marketing partner for Lexiscan, a drug that helps doctors identify heart disease.

The Palo Alto, Calif., target is using Alan Mendelson for legal advice. The Latham & Watkins LLP partner has counseled CVT since its founding in 1990 and handled the company's 1996 IPO when he was at Cooley Godward Kronish LLP. Mendelson brought the client with him to Latham's Silicon Valley office in 2000. CVT tapped longtime adviser Fred Frank of Barclays Capital and Jim Katzman, Marshall Smith, Tosa Ogbomo and Amit Sinha at Goldman, Sachs & Co., which had not previously worked for CVT.