Swoop and scoop

Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. didn't wait long to pick up a late-stage oncology asset plus an earlier-stage compound from Exelixis Inc. that GlaxoSmithKline plc had just passed up. For BMS, the deal adds diversity to the targets in its cancer pipeline. For Exelixis, the upfront money nearly quadruples the cash it would otherwise have had by mid-2009, without dilution.

On Oct. 23, GSK declined to exercise its option to license any of five available cancer compounds from Exelixis, thereby ending a six-year R&D collaboration. BMS immediately put a team of scientists to work evaluating the compounds and took two, as part of its goal of building a cancer pipeline with a wide variety of MOAs...