Left holding the Opdivo bag

Even though activist investors are turning up the heat a few degrees on Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (NYSE:BMY), buysiders contacted by BioCentury view a takeout as unlikely even though the pharma has shed more than $35 billion in market cap in just over six months on a spate of bad news for Opdivo nivolumab in first-line lung cancer.

In the absence of a buyer, the investors will need management to execute on the company’s combination strategy in first-line non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), which will take a while to play out...