LONDON (Reuters) - Japan's Daiichi Sankyo (>> DAIICHI SANKYO COMPANY, LIMITED) denied on Thursday it had received a takeover bid last year from British drugmaker AstraZeneca (>> AstraZeneca), as reported earlier by the online version of Nikkei Business.

"This is not the fact," the company said in a short statement.

AstraZeneca had earlier declined to comment on the report, which sent the Japanese group's share price soaring as much as 13 percent and triggered a trade suspension.

(Reporting by Ben Hirschler; Editing Martinne Geller)

Stocks treated in this article : AstraZeneca, DAIICHI SANKYO COMPANY, LIMITED