Company Shakeups
Bristol-Myers Squibb To Be Acquired By… [Insert Name Here]??
In a previous post, I speculated on reasons for shedding of non-core pharmaceutical assets by BMS. Don’t read it. I was grasping at straws and missed the real connection, I think BMS is divesting non-biopharm assets because it will soon be acquired. The company’s stock is down 11% from this January and ~23% from a year ago today, though it us up 8% in the last five days, so now might be a good time to buy.
BMS has some potential winners in late stage development like apixaban (a factor Xa antagonist as an anticoagulant), saxagliptin (DPP IV inhibitor for diabetes), ipilimumab (CTLA-4 mAb for cancer), pexacerfont (CRF-1 antagonist for anxiety), belatacept (CD28 antagonist for immunosuppression), dapagliflozin (SGLT-2 inhibitor for diabetes and MDX-1379 (Pmel17 based cancer vaccine). Out of these programs, only ipilimumab, pexacerfont and MDX-1379 don’t have a partner [apixaban is partnered with Pfizer, saxagliptin and dapagliflozin with AstraZeneca and belatacept with Novartis].
So who is the suitor? Any of the companies mentioned above would be a logical starting point and Sanofi-Aventis would be another good fit. There is already a relationship between the two companies through the co-marketing of Plavix and many of analysts have speculated Sanofi to be in the lead but ultimately, any of the big five could pull off the deal. BMS holds its annual shareholders meeting today, let’s see what news creeps out.
Which name sounds the best to you?
- Pfizer-Myers Squibb
- Bristol-Myers Zeneca
- Sanofi-Aventis Squibb
- GlaxoSmithKlineSquibb
- NovarSquibb
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Tags: Discussion
5 comments for “Bristol-Myers Squibb To Be Acquired By… [Insert Name Here]??”
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as a sanofian, i like : sanofi-aventis squibb
haha… who am I to disagree… I think it has a nice ring to it.
If you are invested in one of the buy-out suitors, grab your money and run. BMS has never been good at much of anything. Since BM bought E.R. Squibb in 1989, everything BMS touched turned to dirt. i.e. Serzone, Buspar, Vanlev, on and on. They have been dishonest (remember Richard Lane and the pipeline stuffing scandal among other events.) They used dubious marketing to try to influence doctors to prescribe poor drugs when others were clearly better (even to the point of training sales representatives to lie). They routinely winked at the use of unapproved materials to influence physicians. Anything BMS touches turns to dirt. I would not put my money here.
I don’t disagree that BMS may not be the best overall investment in pharma… but speculating and possibly making a quick buck off a merger isn’t exactly value investing. In addition, the argument about BMS being unethical hardly makes a difference in this industry. They all do it, from Lilly and Zyprexa to Amgen/J&J and the procrit/epogen marketing. It doesn’t make it right, but none of them are on a pedestal, right?
[...] been trying to figure BMS out for a few months now and this decision doesn’t solidify anything. Not that it isn’t a good business move (I [...]