BioCentury
ARTICLE | Company News

Medarex, Bristol-Myers deal

July 27, 2009 7:00 AM UTC

Bristol-Myers plans to acquire Medarex in a tender offer of $16 per share, or about $2.4 billion in cash. Bristol-Myers said it expects Medarex to have $300 million in net cash at closing. The price is a 90% premium to Medarex's close of $8.40 on July 22, before the deal was announced. Bristol-Myers said the deal expands its cancer and immunology pipeline and gives it full rights to ipilimumab, which is in Phase III testing to treat advanced melanoma, adjuvant treatment of melanoma and hormone-refractory prostate cancer (HRPC). Data for advanced melanoma are expected next half. The companies are co-developing the human mAb against CTLA-4 receptor under a January 2005 deal. Bristol-Myers also gains Medarex's UltiMAb human antibody and Antibody-Drug Conjugate technologies. (see BioCentury, Nov. 15, 2004).

Medarex has seven unpartnered antibodies in clinical testing, the most advanced of which is MDX-1100, a human mAb against chemokine CXC motif ligand 10 ( CXCL10, IP-10) in Phase II testing to treat ulcerative colitis (UC) and rheumatoid arthritis. The six other mAbs are in Phase I testing for RA and cancer, including chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) and Hodgkin's lymphoma. ...