Bristol-Myers Squibb To Be Acquired By…??

In a previous post, I speculated on reasons for shedding of non-core pharmaceutical assets by Bristol-Myers Squibb (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

Comments

[Radiodoc]

I think a foreign company like GSK...

yourwebmd.blogspot.com

[Thomas]

Very confusing! The stock symbol for Bristol-Myers Squibb is BMY

[Eben Tessari]

Yeah... not my fault. The editors of seeking alpha put the stock symbols in, I have no control over that.