NEW YORK (AP) - Eli Lilly & Co. bumped up its offer for ICOS Corp. by 6 percent, to $34 per share, or $2.3 billion on Monday in front of a vote on the deal that two proxy firms were advising against.

Lilly originally offered $32 per share, in a cash deal valued at $2.1 billion, in an agreement signed in October.

While Proxy Governance Inc. advised shareholders to accept the offer, Institutional Shareholders Services and Glass Lewis & Co. said the deal should be rejected.

ICOS shareholders had been scheduled to vote on the offer at a meeting Tuesday, but that meeting has been postponed until Jan. 25.

The boards of both companies approved the revised deal.

ICOS shares gained 52 cents, or 1.6 percent, to $33.87 in afternoon trading on the Nasdaq, while Lilly shares sank $1.30, or 2.4 percent, to $53.22 on the New York Stock Exchange.

Analysts said Lilly stock slipped because of a combination of the revised pricing and negative articles in the New York Times about the company and its schizophrenia treatment Zyprexa.

Jason Napodano, an analyst with Zacks Independent Research, said he wasn't surprised that Lilly opted to up the ante in the deal because ICOS issued a bullish forecast on its prospects last week.

The Bothell, Wash.-based drugmaker provided a preliminary earnings per share prediction of between 17 cents and 22 cents for the fourth quarter and projected earnings of between 33 cents a share and 38 cents a share for 2007.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial had expected ICOS to earn 9 cents per share final quarter of this year and 29 cents per share in 2007.

"They (ICOS) really pushed Lilly to pay more with that announcement," Napodano said. "I think it (the deal) still makes sense."

Napodano said the additional $200 million doesn't represent that much money for Lilly.

Lilly opted to purchase ICOS to gain full control of Cialis, an erectile dysfunction drug it sells with the company. ICOS and Lilly formed a joint venture in 1998 to develop and sell the drug, which was launched in 2003.

Indianapolis-based Lilly has told the 700 employees at ICOS that their jobs will be eliminated should shareholders approve the deal.

In a statement, Chris Young, Institutional Shareholders Services' director of mergers and acquisitions research, said the company was pleased by Lilly's offer to raise the offer and that the new bid would be evaluated over the coming weeks.

Glass Lewis didn't immediately return a call for comment.

Meanwhile, analysts didn't think the revelations in the New York Times articles would really effect Lilly, which last year agreed to settle some lawsuits regarding Zyprexa's links to diabetes and other health problems.

On Sunday, The Times published an article which said Lilly downplayed the drug's ties to obesity and its tendency to raise blood sugar - both of which are linked to diabetes. Lilly said in a statement that no study showed that Zyprexa causes diabetes and that the drug's label discusses possible weight gain.

Monday's Times carried an article that said Lilly was promoting Zyprexa for unapproved uses. Lilly objected to the story and denied its allegations.

"I don't think Lilly was out there pushing an unsafe drug," Napodano said.