(Reuters) - Bristol-Myers Squibb Co (BMY.N) said on Thursday it would buy Celgene Corp (CELG.O) for about $74 billion, combining two of the world’s largest cancer drug businesses in the biggest pharmaceutical deal ever.

Both Bristol-Myers and Celgene face separate challenges, and some Wall Street analysts questioned whether the combination - which the companies said would create $2.5 billion in cost savings and significantly raise earnings - would solve them. Amid clinical setbacks and other missteps, Bristol-Myers shares fell 15.2 percent in 2018 while Celgene plunged nearly 40 percent last year.

Bristol’s most important cancer immunotherapy and growth driver, Opdivo, has lost much of its luster as Merck & Co’s (MRK.N) rival drug Keytruda seized dominance in advanced lung cancer, the most lucrative oncology market. Meanwhile, Celgene has endured high-profile clinical failures and U.S. exclusivity on its flagship multiple myeloma drug, Revlimid, will start being phased out in 2022.

On Thursday, Bristol’s stock ended another 13.3 percent lower at $45.12. “Doing this transaction clearly indicates that risk to Opdivo in lung cancer is obviously a concern,” SunTrust Robinson Humphrey analyst John Boris said in an interview.

There is also shareholder concern that drugs in development would not have enough sales to offset major products losing exclusivity between 2022 and 2026.

But cash flow from Revlimid buys Bristol-Myers time to pay down debt and position for another transaction, Boris said. Revlimid is expected to record nearly $10 billion in 2018 sales.

Celgene shares were up 20.7 percent at $89.43.

“Both of them were coming into this year kind of limping,” said Brad Loncar, who runs the Loncar Cancer Immunotherapy ETF. The deal makes “the combined entity a lot stronger,” he added.

Including debt, the deal is worth $95 billion, eclipsing Pfizer's $89 billion purchase of Warner-Lambert in 2000, according to Refinitiv. (Graphic: tmsnrt.rs/2RsZ4XS)

Some analysts, including Baird Equity’s Brian Skorney, said it raised the possibility of a new era of big drug deals, much like in 2009, when Pfizer Inc (PFE.N), Merck, and Roche Holding AG (ROG.S) all pulled off transformational acquisitions. The news pushed up shares of rivals Gilead Sciences Inc (GILD.O), Allergan Plc (AGN.N), Biogen Inc (BIIB.O) and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc (REGN.O).

Bristol expects to achieve the $2.5 billion in cost savings by 2022, with 55 percent coming from cuts in sales, general and administrative expenses, 35 percent through reduction in research & development spending and 10 percent from manufacturing. It said the deal will add more than 40 percent to its earnings in the first year after the deal closes, expected in the third quarter of 2019.

Under terms of the deal, Celgene shareholders will receive one Bristol-Myers Squibb share and $50 in cash for each share held, or $102.43 per share, a premium of 53.7 percent to Celgene’s Wednesday close.

Celgene shareholders will also receive a so-called CVR payment, or contingent value right, of $9 if three treatments in development achieve timely approvals. Those are the high-profile multiple sclerosis drug ozanimod, lymphoma treatment liso-cel by Dec. 31, 2020 and a CAR-T therapy for multiple myeloma known as bb2121 from a partnership with bluebird bio (BLUE.O) by March 31, 2021.

FILE PHOTO: Logo of global biopharmaceutical company Bristol-Myers Squibb is pictured at building in Le Passage, near Agen, France March 29, 2018. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau

BLOOD CANCER DOMINANCE

“What’s important to us is the sustainability of Celgene’s leadership position in hematology through their pipeline” even after Revlimid loses patent protection, Bristol-Myers Chief Executive Giovanni Caforio said in an interview. His company’s strength has primarily been in solid tumor cancers.

The New York-based drugmaker said it expects six product launches over the next two years - five coming from Celgene’s pipeline. It also highlighted promising early clinical assets it would gain with the New Jersey-based biotech.

Celgene brings experience with potentially revolutionary CAR-T therapies from its $9 billion purchase of Juno Therapeutics and the bluebird collaboration. The therapy takes immune cells from a patient, engineers them to better recognize and attack cancer and returns them to the patient.

The deal could also provide a graceful exit for Celgene CEO Mark Alles, who has only committed to staying through the transition. His rocky tenure included management shakeups and the loss of more than half its market value since October 2017 as an expensive experimental Crohn’s disease drug touted as a future multibillion-dollar product failed and the expected approval of ozanimod was delayed.

Alles, on a conference call, urged shareholders to support the deal.

Jeremy Bryan, portfolio manager at Gradient Investments, which has small positions in both companies, said the Celgene purchase puts Bristol-Myers “on the clock” to do more deals.

“When you have a significant amount of cash coming in in the next three years, it gives you the flexibility ... for deals if they are out there or to buy back significant amounts of stock,” Bryan said.

Talks between Bristol and Celgene opened in September, with Bristol approaching Celgene, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

FILE PHOTO: Logo of global biopharmaceutical company Bristol-Myers Squibb is pictured on the blouse of an employee in Le Passage, near Agen, France March 29, 2018. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau

Bristol has obtained fully committed debt financing from Morgan Stanley Senior Funding Inc and MUFG Bank Ltd.

Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC is the lead financial adviser to Bristol-Myers, and Evercore and Dyal Co LLC are its financial advisers. Kirkland & Ellis LLP is its legal counsel.

J.P. Morgan Securities LLC is serving as lead financial adviser and Citi is the financial adviser to Celgene. Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz is its legal counsel.</s>NEW YORK: New York-based pharmaceutical giant Bristol-Myers Squibb on Thursday (Jan 3) announced it would buy US biotech firm Celgene in a US$74 billion cash-and-stock deal, instantly creating a rival to the world's largest drug manufacturers.

The merger plans underscored the companies' efforts to diversify in the field of cancer treatments, with investors in recent months questioning their growth prospects.

In the deal, Bristol-Myers Squibb gains Celgene's blockbuster Revlimid treatment for multiple myeloma. The companies said the new entity would also offer nine products with more than US$1 billion in annual sales.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Chairman and CEO Giovanni Caforio said in a statement the combined companies would also enjoy "a deep and broad pipeline that will drive sustainable growth."

They also pointed to oncology, immunology, inflammation and cardiovascular disease as important growth areas.

"We will also benefit from an expanded early- and late-stage pipeline that includes six expected near-term product launches," Caforio said in the statement.

Other advantages of the deal include a number of new product launches expected in the next 12 months and extensive cost savings. Executives described company assets as "complementary" and with the potential to create "the preeminent global bio-pharmaceutical company," according to a conference call with analysts.

The transaction follows other recent large pharma deals, including French company Sanofi's purchase of US hemophilia group Bioverativ for US$11.6 billion and Novartis' US$8.7 billion acquisition of rare-disease treatment company AveXis.

Both companies had been the subject of merger speculation, with investors saying Bristol-Myers's big seller Opdivo, a cancer medication, had lost market share to rival Merck.

Celgene meanwhile faced the prospect of mounting competition from copycat drugs as patents begin to expire.

The company has said in securities filings that it expects competitors could market generic versions of its Revlimid cancer drug ahead of patent expirations, which Celgene has said will remain in force "at least through 2022."

Revlimid accounted for US$8.2 billion in sales in 2017, nearly two-thirds of overall revenues of US$13 billion.

Caforio told analysts the company "conducted extensive due diligence" on the intellectual property questions surrounding Revlimid and agreed with Celgene's views, adding that the company's forecasts on the drug were "more conservative" than those of analysts.

A slide in an investor presentation Thursday had some generics hitting the Revlimid market in March 2022, with "full generic entry" in January 2026.

Bristol-Myers's top two selling drugs last year globally were Opdivo and blood clot drug Eliquis, which together accounted for nearly half the company's 2017 revenues of US$20.8 billion.

Bristol-Myers had 23,700 employees at the end of last year, while Celgene had 7,647.

Caforio will continue to serve in his chief roles while two members of Celgene's board will hold spots on Bristol-Myers Squibb's board of directors.

In remarks made before the announcement, Jeffries trading specialist Jared Holz told Bloomberg that Celgene had been "one of the most disappointing stories" among major healthcare firms, with some of its most promising drugs in development not due to be available before 2020.

Under the deal, Bristol-Myers shareholders will own about 69 per cent of the new pharmaceutical giant, while Celgene Shareholders will receive one Bristol-Myers share and US$50 per share of Celgene.

The companies expect to close the deal in the third quarter of this year, with earnings per share at Bristol-Myers Squibb swelling by 40 per cent in the first full year.

Shares in New Jersey-based Celgene surged 25.1 per cent to US$83.36 in midday trading, while Bristol-Myers Squibb falling 11.8 per cent to US$45.88.

Celgene in January of last year announced the acquisition of Seattle-based Juno Therapeutics, which developed treatments for lymphoma, and the blood disease biotech firm Impact Biomedicines, for a total of US$16 billion.</s>Bristol-Myers Squibb is spending $74 billion on fellow drugmaker Celgene in a deal aimed at stocking the combined company's development pipeline with cancer, immunology and cardiovascular treatments.

Bristol would gain the cancer treatment Revlimid in the cash-and-stock deal announced Thursday, as well as inflammatory disease treatments and several products close to launching.

The combined company will have nine products with more than $1 billion in annual sales. Bristol Chairman and CEO Giovanni Caforio said in a prepared statement that the combination will create a deep product portfolio that drives growth.

It was a hard sell, however, in premarket trading Thursday. Shares of Bristol plunged more than 15 percent. Celgene soared 31 percent.

Under terms of the deal, shareholders of Celgene Corp., based in Summit, N.J., will receive one share of Bristol-Myers Squibb plus $50 in cash for each share they own. They'll also receive one tradeable contingent value right for each Celgene share, allowing the holder to receive a payment when future regulatory milestones are hit.

The cash-and-stock portion of the deal total $102.43, based on Wednesday's closing price of $52.43 for Bristol shares. That represents a premium of nearly 54 percent to Celgene's closing price of $66.64.

Shareholders of Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., based in New York City, would own about 69 percent of the company, with Celgene shareholders owning about 31 percent.

Follow @ChiTribBusiness on Facebook and @ChiTribBiz on Twitter.</s>Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. agreed to buy rival Celgene Corp. in a deal valued at about $74 billion, combining two leading sellers of cancer drugs and potentially signaling the return of dealmaking to the pharmaceutical industry.

Overall, the merged company will have nine products with more than $1 billion each in annual sales—most notably Celgene’s multiple myeloma drug Revlimid and Bristol’s lung-cancer treatment Opdivo.</s>(Reuters) - Bristol-Myers Squibb Co said on Thursday it would buy Celgene Corp for about $74 billion, creating a major pharma company with several blockbuster cancer drugs as competition in the immunotherapy space heats up.

Bristol-Myers pioneered immunotherapy with its Yervoy and later Opdivo, but has come under pressure as Merck & Co’s rival treatment Keytruda moved ahead in market share in lung cancer treatment, the most lucrative oncology market.

The deal will create a company with nine treatments bringing in more than $1 billion in annual sales and a significant potential for growth in oncology, immunology and inflammation and cardiovascular disease.

Talks opened in September, with Bristol-Myers approaching Celgene, according to a source familiar with the matter.

BMO Capital Markets analyst Alex Arfaei said the deal addresses a priority for Bristol to diversify from immunotherapy, calling the acquisition opportunistic but expensive.

“This proposed deal does not send a confident signal about Bristol’s independent growth prospects,” Arfaei said in a client note.

Increasing competition for main cancer treatments of both companies and clinical setbacks last year have resulted in investor concern over their future prospects.

Shares of Celgene have lost 38.6 percent of its value in 2018, while those of Bristol-Meyers have shed 15.2 percent.

Last year, Celgene bought experimental cancer drug developer Juno Therapeutics for $9 billion, betting on its chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy, known as CAR-T, in a bid to reduce reliance on its mainstay drug, Revlimid.

Brad Loncar, chief executive officer of Loncar Investments, said both companies have made significant mistakes and poor investments in acquisitions and partnerships with smaller companies.

“Both of them were coming into this year kind of limping. Merging together makes the combined entity a lot stronger,” said Loncar, whose firm runs the Loncar Cancer Immunotherapy ETF.

Celgene shareholders will receive one Bristol-Myers Squibb share and $50 in cash for each share held, or $102.43 per share, a premium of 53.7 percent to Celgene’s Wednesday close.

Bristol-Myers shares fell 9.5 percent at $47.10, while Celgene shares rose 33.5 percent at $88.95 in premarket trading.

Celgene shareholders will also receive one tradeable contingent value right for each share held, which will entitle them to receive a one-time potential payment of $9 in cash upon regulatory approval of ozanimod and liso-cel by Dec. 31, 2020 and bb2121 by March 31, 2021.

Bristol-Myers said it expects to speed up a share repurchase program of up to about $5 billion, subject to the closing of the transaction, market conditions and board approval.

The companies expect to close the deal in the third quarter of 2019. The cash portion will be funded through a combination of cash on hand and debt financing.

The deal is expected to add more than 40 percent to Bristol-Myers’s earnings on a standalone basis in the first full year after the deal closes.

Bristol-Myers has obtained fully committed debt financing from Morgan Stanley Senior Funding Inc and MUFG Bank Ltd.

Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC is the lead financial adviser to Bristol-Myers, and Evercore and Dyal Co. LLC are its financial advisers. Kirkland & Ellis LLP is its legal counsel.

J.P. Morgan Securities LLC is serving as lead financial adviser and Citi is the financial adviser to Celgene. Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz is its legal counsel.</s>Bristol-Myers Squibb agreed to acquire Celgene Corp. in a $74 billion deal that will unite two drugmakers battling for advantage in a crowded market for innovative cancer treatments.

Both companies have faced investor wariness about their prospects in recent months. Bristol makes an immunotherapy drug called Opdivo that accounts for roughly a quarter of its sales but that has trailed a rival medication from Merck & Co. Celgene, meanwhile, has been looking for a follow-up for its blockbuster blood-cancer therapy Revlimid.

The proposed union of the two companies represents a big bet that combined mass will help overcome the obstacles confronting their respective cornerstone products.

If it is approved by shareholders and regulators, the cash-and-stock deal would rank as the largest pharmaceutical-company acquisition ever. Including net debt, the transaction values Celgene at $88.8 billion, surpassing Pfizer Inc.'s deal for Warner-Lambert.

Under the proposed terms, Celgene shareholders will receive one Bristol-Myers Squibb share and $50 in cash for each Celgene share, according to a statement from the companies on Thursday. That would value Celgene at $102.43 a share, a 54 percent premium to the stock's closing price on Jan 2.

The initial reaction of investors suggested wariness. Celgene shares soared by 29 percent, though were still trading well short of the proposed deal price, at roughly $86.20 at 9:38 a.m. in New York. Bristol shares fell 12 percent to $46.12.

Shares of both companies had been beaten down last year. Bristol-Myers shares declined more than 15 percent in 2018, while Celgene shares sank 39 percent.

The deal is New York-based Bristol's largest under Chief Executive Officer Giovanni Caforio, and comes after the drugmaker has suffered high-profile setbacks in immuno-oncology, its biggest line of business.

Given Opdivo's large and growing share of its revenue, Bristol has been under pressure to diversify its portfolio. In a recent earnings call, Caforio said that the company would look to deals to diversify its pipeline. At various points in recent years as Bristol has stumbled with trial failures, its name has come up as a takeout target itself.

In purchasing Celgene, Bristol will get control of one of the most successful cancer drugs of recent years, the top-selling blood-cancer therapy Revlimid, which costs more than $100,000 a year. It will also gain a promising experimental CAR-T therapy being developed by Juno Therapeutics, which Celgene acquired in a $9 billion takeover deal last year.

Bristol has had talks with Celgene over the past two years, people familiar with the situation said. Caforio initiated more formal talks in September, the people said, and negotiations accelerated over the past few weeks. Recent declines in biotechnology stocks helped spur the deal on, the people said.

Caforio said on a call with analysts on Thursday that the deal "is not about Revlimid" and that the two companies had been discussing a potential tie-up for some time. He said that the combined companies anticipate six product launches over the next 12 to 24 months.

"There are concrete, short-term growth opportunities that this will deliver to Bristol-Myers," said Caforio.

Despite Revlimid's success, Celgene shares have been hammered over the past year-and-a-half amid investor fear that the company lacks a potent successor to its biggest blockbuster. Revlimid is expected to face increased generic competition in coming years.

Summit, New Jersey-based Celgene suffered a series of high profile setbacks including the failure of a once promising therapy in a late-stage clinical trial. The Food and Drug Administration also refused to review an experimental medicine that was expected to be a future growth driver.

"The deal generates tremendous immediate-term value that we believe would have taken years for Celgene to achieve," said analysts at Leerink Partners in a note to investors.

Celgene's problems aren't unique. Several larger biotechnology companies that have become reliant on huge-selling but older drugs saw their shares suffer in 2018, and some gained on speculation that they could be takeover targets or could find something to buy themselves.

Shares of Gilead Sciences Inc., which has seen sales of its blockbuster antiviral medications flag over the past year, were up roughly 3.5 percent in premarket trading.

News of the deal came ahead of next week’s JPMorgan Healthcare Conference, an annual industry confab in San Francisco that is frequently a catalyst for mergers and other transactions. Heading into that event, some analysts had grown concerned that a volatile U.S. stock market and a slowdown in activity last year could have a chilling effect on dealmaking.</s>Bristol-Myers Squibb is to buy US rival Celgene for about $74bn (£59bn), creating a major pharma company with several blockbuster cancer drugs as competition in the immunotherapy space heats up.

Bristol-Myers pioneered immunotherapy with its Yervoy and later Opdivo, but has come under pressure as Merck’s rival treatment Keytruda moved ahead in market share in lung cancer treatment, the most lucrative oncology market.

The deal will create a company with nine treatments bringing in more than $1bn in annual sales and a significant potential for growth in oncology, immunology and inflammation, and cardiovascular disease.

Talks opened in September, with Bristol-Myers approaching Celgene, according to a source familiar with the matter.

BMO Capital Markets analyst Alex Arfaei said the deal addresses a priority for Bristol-Myers to diversify from immunotherapy, calling the acquisition opportunistic but expensive.

“This proposed deal does not send a confident signal about Bristol’s independent growth prospects,” Arfaei said in a client note.

Increasing competition for main cancer treatments of both companies and clinical setbacks last year have resulted in investor concern over their future prospects.

Celgene shares have lost nearly 40% in value in 2018, while those of Bristol-Meyers have shed just over 15%.

Last year, Celgene bought experimental cancer drug developer Juno Therapeutics for $9bn, betting on its chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy, known as CAR-T, in a bid to reduce reliance on its mainstay drug, Revlimid.

Celgene shareholders will receive one Bristol-Myers Squibb share and $50 in cash for each share held, or $102.43 per share, a premium of 53.7% to Celgene’s Wednesday close.

Bristol-Myers shares fell nearly 14% in early trading in New York on Thursday after the proposed deal was announced, while Celgene shares rose 26%.

Bristol-Myers said it expects to speed up a share repurchase programme of up to about $5bn, subject to the closing of the transaction, market conditions and board approval.

The companies expect to close the deal in the third quarter of 2019. The cash portion will be funded through a combination of cash on hand and debt financing.

The deal is expected to add more than 40% to Bristol-Myers’s earnings on a standalone basis in the first full year after the deal closes.</s>FILE - In this June 15, 2005, file photo, a sign stands in front of a Bristol-Myers Squibb building in a Lawrence Township, N.J. Bristol-Myers Squibb is buying Celgene in a cash-and-stock deal valued at about $74 billion. (AP Photo/Mel Evans, File)

SUMMIT, N.J. (AP) — Bristol-Myers Squibb is spending $74 billion on fellow drugmaker Celgene in a deal aimed at stocking the combined company's development pipeline with cancer, immunology and cardiovascular treatments.

Bristol would gain the cancer treatment Revlimid in the cash-and-stock deal announced Thursday, as well as inflammatory disease treatments and several products close to launching.

The combined company will have nine products with more than $1 billion in annual sales. Bristol's product portfolio already includes Orencia, an injected drug for rheumatoid arthritis, and the cancer treatment Opdivo.

Bristol Chairman and CEO Giovanni Caforio said in a prepared statement that the combination will create a deep product portfolio that drives growth.

It was a hard sell, however, on Wall Street. Shares of Bristol ended Thursday down $6.90, or 13.3 percent, at $45.12, on a day when the Standard & Poor's 500 lost 2.5 percent. Celgene shares, however, soared $13.79, or 20.7 percent, to $80.43.

Under terms of the deal, shareholders of Celgene Corp., based in Summit, New Jersey, will receive one share of Bristol-Myers Squibb plus $50 in cash for each share they own. They'll also receive one tradeable contingent value right for each Celgene share, allowing the holder to receive a $9 payment when future regulatory milestones are hit.

The cash-and-stock portion of the deal totals $102.43, based on Wednesday's closing price of $52.43 for Bristol shares. That represents a premium of nearly 54 percent to Celgene's closing price of $66.64.

Shareholders of Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., based in New York, would own about 69 percent of the company, with Celgene shareholders owning about 31 percent.</s>Bristol-Myers Squibb agreed to acquire Celgene in a $74 billion cash-and-stock deal that unites two cancer-drug makers in one of the largest pharmaceutical-company mergers ever.

Under the terms of the proposed deal, Celgene shareholders will receive one Bristol-Myers Squibb share and $50 in cash for each Celgene share held, according to a statement from the companies on Thursday. That would value Celgene at $102.43 a share, a 54% premium to the stock’s closing price on Jan 2.

Celgene shares soared more than 30% to $87.20 in premarket trading in New York, while Bristol shares fell more than 16% to $44.

The transaction would combine two companies that both have strong-selling cancer drugs but that have also faced investor skepticism about their growth prospects. Bristol-Myers (bmy) shares declined more than 15% in 2018, while Celgene shares (celg) sank more than 41%.

The deal is Bristol’s largest under Chief Executive Officer Giovanni Caforio, and comes after the drugmaker has suffered some high-profile setbacks in immuno-oncology, its biggest line of business.

Bristol has been under pressure to diversify its portfolio. It currently gets roughly a quarter of its sales from immune-harnessing cancer drug Opdivo, which faces competition from Merck’s rival immunotherapy drug Keytruda. In a recent earnings call, Caforio said the company would look to deals to diversify its pipeline. At various points in recent years as Bristol has stumbled with trial failures, its name has come up as a takeout target itself.

In purchasing Celgene, Bristol will get control of one of the most successful cancer drugs of recent years, the top-selling blood-cancer therapy Revlimid, which costs more than $100,000 a year. It will also gain a promising experimental CAR-T therapy being developed by Juno Therapeutics, which Celgene acquired in a $9 billion takeover deal last year.

Despite Revlimid’s success, Celgene shares have been hammered over the past year and a half amid investor fear that the company lacks a potent successor to its biggest blockbuster. Revlimid is expected to face increased generic competition in coming years.

The Summit, New Jersey-based company suffered a series of high profile setbacks including the failure of a once promising therapy in a late-stage clinical trial. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration also refused to review an experimental medicine that was expected to be a future growth driver.</s>New York: New York-based pharmaceutical giant Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. on Thursday announced it would buy US biotech firm Celgene Corp. in a $74 billion cash-and-stock deal, instantly creating a rival to the world’s largest drug makers. The merger plans underscored the companies’ efforts to diversify in the field of cancer treatments, with investors in recent months questioning their growth prospects.

In the deal, Bristol-Meyers Squibb gains Celgene’s blockbuster Revlimid treatment for multiple myeloma. The companies said the new entity would also offer nine products with more than $1 billion in annual sales.

Bristol-Myers Squibb chairman and chief executive, Giovanni Caforio, said that in a statement the combined companies would also enjoy “a deep and broad pipeline that will drive sustainable growth”.

They also pointed to oncology, immunology, inflammation and cardiovascular disease as important growth areas. “We will also benefit from an expanded early- and late-stage pipeline that includes six expected near-term product launches,” Caforio said in the statement.

Both companies had been the subject of merger speculation, with investors saying Bristol-Meyers’ big seller Opdivo, a cancer medication, had lost market share to rival Merck.

Celgene meanwhile faced the prospect of mounting competition from copycat drugs as patents begin to expire, according to Bloomberg. Celgene’s Revlimid had sales expected to top $10 billion, according to the news agency.

Caforio will continue to serve in his chief roles while two members of Celgene’s board will hold spots on Bristol-Myers Squibb’s board of directors.

Speaking ahead of the announcement, Jeffries trading specialist Jared Holz told Bloomberg that Celgene had been “one of the most disappointing stories” among major healthcare firms, with some of its most promising drugs in development not due to be available before 2020.

Under the deal, Bristol-Myers shareholders will own about 69% of the new pharmaceutical giant, while Celgene Shareholders will receive one Bristol-Meyers share and $50 per share of Celgene.

The companies expect to close the deal in the third quarter of this year, with earnings per share at Bristol-Meyers Squibb swelling by 40% in the first full year.

Shares in Bristol-Myers plunged more than 10% at the open on Wall Street while the New Jersey-based Celgene soared more than 30%. Bristol-Meyers is due to report fourth-quarter results later this month.

Celgene in January of last year announced the acquisition of Seattle-based Juno Therapeutics, which developed treatments for lymphoma, and the blood disease biotech firm Impact Biomedicines, for a total of $16 billion.
Pharmaceutical company Bristol-Myers Squibb proposes the takeover of cancer drug company Celgene for US$95 billion, including debt, the biggest biopharma deal ever.