MONTREAL — The largest shareholder of Wex Pharmaceuticals Inc. is proposing to buy the Canadian drug company’s remaining restricted voting shares for a total of about $6.5 million.

Both companies announced Monday that Pharmagesic (Holdings) Inc., which already owns 88.7 per cent of the restricted voting shares, is offering 13 cents each for the rest.

Wex said it has formed a special committee of independent directors to review the proposal, which was unsolicited by the Vancouver-based developer and manufacturer of pain drugs.

Pharmagesic, which is an indirect subsidiary of the Chung Kong Group and its publicly traded CK Life Sciences, said it may withdraw the proposal if an independent valuation finds Wex shares are worth more than the offer price.

Pharmagesic owns the sole Class A share of Wex and about 392.4 million restricted voting shares, which last traded July 5 at at 10.5 cents on the Toronto Stock Exchange.