AstraZeneca and BMS buy Amylin for $7 billion
pharmafile | July 2, 2012 | News story | Sales and Marketing | Amylin, AstraZeneca, BMS
AstraZeneca and Bristol-Myers Squibb have struck a deal to purchase diabetes specialist Amylin in a complicated agreement worth $7 billion.
The deal is being done in two stages: Amylin shareholders will receive $31 a share in cash from Bristol-Myers Squibb, which will total $5.3 billion.
But BMS will also assume debt and royalties payable to Lilly, Amylin’s diabetes partner, for a further $1.7 billion.
Amylin will then be merged into its joint venture with AstraZeneca, which will pay $3.4 billion towards the $7 billion deal.
AstraZeneca also has the option to establish equal governance rights over key strategic and financial decisions regarding the collaboration, upon the payment to Bristol-Myers Squibb of an additional $135 million – an option it will most likely take.
Amylin offers the firms its established diabetes treatment Byetta, which was co-developed with Lilly, but the two firms dramatically split their partnership last year, leading to speculation over an Amylin acquisition.
But the firm’s longer acting form of Byetta – called Bydureon – has been touted as a potential blockbuster after recent approvals in Europe and the US, and will be boosted by the might of AZ and BMS’ marketing teams.
The deal is being partly overseen by Simon Lowth, interim chief executive officer of AstraZeneca, who stepped in when its former leader David Brennan was ousted in April.
AZ has been through a difficult 18 months, with numerous late-stage failures and weak financial results – but its new chairman Leif Johansson recently told the Financial Times that he was looking for big deals to help his firm bounce back.
For BMS, the firm recently lost patent protection on its $7 billion a year drug Plavix, and will also hope that Amylin’s portfolio can help shore up its revenue in the future.
Amylin’s portfolio fits well with BMS and AstraZeneca’s existing diabetes drug alliance, which includes the co-marketing of dapagliflozin, which is approved in Europe, but recently failed to win the FDA’s backing.
Lowth said: “This is a compelling proposition that will have an immediate positive impact on revenues and is fully in line with our stated partnering strategy to enhance top-line growth and strengthen our late-stage pipeline.
“The broadening of our diabetes collaboration with Bristol-Myers Squibb is another important step towards creating a leadership position in the treatment of a disease with growing unmet medical need that is reaching epidemic proportions in many areas of the world.
“The combined development, regulatory and commercial strengths of the AstraZeneca and Bristol-Myers Squibb alliance for diabetes provides an excellent platform to unlock the potential of Amylin’s differentiated treatments for the benefit of patients worldwide and for our shareholders.”
Ben Adams
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