The French drug maker, Sanofi-Aventis SA, which made a hostile bid for Genzyme Corp., has extended the deadline to 21 January, for the U. S. shareholders of the biotechnology company to tender their stock.

The Paris based company had made a statement saying today that about 2.2 million of shares which is 0.9 percent of the stock remaining had been tendered by the deadline fixed at the midnight of 10 December. The offer of 18.5 billion dollars equivalent to sixty nine dollars per share was set to expire on December 10.

On the October 4, of 2010 the French drug maker Sanofi took its offer directly to the shareholders of Genzyme, a Cambridge Massachusetts based company. The direct offer was made following the turning down of the offer by the CEO of Genzyme Henri Termeer stating it too low. Termeer refused to negotiate on the offer.

The offer which came into the open on 29, August undervalued Genzymes array of experimental drugs and also ignored the expected growth in the revenues of the company following the repair of the manufacturing flaws as stated by Termeer.

Genzyme thinks it is worth more than the current offer made by Sanofi, as stated by the chief investment officer of the First Empire Asset Management Inc, located in Hauppauge of New York named Michael Obuchowski, in an interview in the last month. He further added that investors also value Genzyme more than the offer.

The share prices of Genzyme went to sixty nine dollars per share after the offer was made public which suggested that the CEO has shareholders up his sleeve who back his stand of not negotiating with Sanofi at the offered price.