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. 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 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. The merger plans underscored the companies' efforts to diversify in the field of cancer treatments, with investors in recent months questioning their growth prospects. Amid clinical setbacks and other missteps, Bristol-Myers shares fell 15.2 percent in 2018 while Celgene plunged nearly 40 percent last year. 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. 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. 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.
Pharmaceutical company Bristol-Myers Squibb proposes the takeover of cancer drug company Celgene for US$95 billion, including debt, the biggest biopharma deal ever.