TRENTON, N.J. — Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. on Thursday offered $4.5 billion in cash for its cancer-drug partner, biotechnology company ImClone Systems Inc., saying the two are “a natural fit.”
ImClone’s board has yet to comment on the proposal, which offers its stockholders $60 per share, a 30 percent premium to New York-based ImClone’s closing price of $46.44 Wednesday. New York-based Bristol-Myers, the world’s No. 14 drugmaker by revenue, already owns about 17 percent of ImClone.
The two companies have been partners since September 2001 in developing Erbitux, which is approved for treating advanced colorectal cancer and head and neck cancers.
ImClone shares surged beyond Bristol’s offering price and rose $17.49, or 37.7 percent, to $63.93. Bristol-Myers shares fell 39 cents to $21.12.
Bristol-Myers chairman and chief executive James Cornelius told reporters during a conference call that the deal is a fair offer and is meant to build value for shareholders by getting approvals to sell Erbitux for other types of cancer and helping ImClone turn its cancer compounds into new drugs.
“It is consistent with our strategy to focus on specialty areas of high unmet need,” Cornelius said. “This will benefit cancer patients worldwide.”
Analyst Steve Brozak of WBB Securities said Bristol-Myers is “buying earnings” with the deal because, like the other big drugmakers, it has no blockbusters in development. ImClone revenue would go right to Bristol’s bottom line, he said, and jobs in administration and other areas likely would be cut.
“This deal was a foregone conclusion years ago,” he said.
Deals like this — and No. 7 drugmaker Roche Group’s $43.7 billion offer last week for the 44 percent of biotech drugmaker Genentech Inc. it doesn’t already own — will become common, Brozak predicted.
