Baxalta Inc., the drugmaker fending off a $30 billion takeover offer from Shire Plc, has abandoned its pursuit of Ariad Pharmaceuticals Inc. after negotiations broke down over price, people with knowledge of the matter said.

Talks between the companies ended earlier this week and there are currently no plans to resume negotiations, the people said, asking not to be identified as the matter is private. Baxalta had been discussing an acquisition of the developer of leukemia and lung-cancer treatments that would have valued it at close to $2 billion, people familiar with the matter said last week.

Ariad shares fell as much as 22 percent and were trading 18 percent lower at $7.34 at 10:30 a.m. in New York, valuing the company at about $1.4 billion. Baxalta fell 0.4 percent to $34.55.

As well as disagreements over price, Baxalta also backed off after receiving negative feedback about the prospect of a takeover of Ariad from some of its own investors, one of the people said.

A spokeswoman for Ariad declined to comment, while representatives for Baxalta didn’t immediately respond to a phone call and e-mail seeking comment.

It is unclear how the decision may affect Shire’s efforts to acquire Baxalta, but calling off negotiations with Ariad won’t change Baxalta’s stance on a deal with Shire, the people said.

Since Shire went public with its all-stock takeover proposal, Baxalta’s management has sought to paint the Irish drugmaker as trying to buy it cheaply.

“Is it trying to opportunistically acquire our attractive hemophilia, immunology and growing oncology platforms without true synergies?” Baxalta Chief Executive Officer Ludwig Hantson said in an interview last month. “We have an attractive set of franchises and it would be a shame to hand it over for a low-ball valuation.”

— With assistance by Doni Bloomfield