Lilly eyes oncology focus with ImClone acquisition
pharmafile | October 9, 2008 | News story | Sales and Marketing | Cancer, MA, lilly
Lilly is to buy ImClone for $6.5 billion after outbidding Bristol-Myers Squibb for the biotech company.
Lilly says the acquisition will make it one of the world's leaders in cancer treatment, an increasingly important field in the pharma industry.
The company outbid BMS with is $70 per share offer, trumping BMS's $62 per share bid.
BMS owns 14.4 million shares of ImClone and the deal, at $70 per share, will see BMS receiving around $1 billion in cash.
The company said it was "pleased to have initiated a process that has resulted in the substantial increase of ImClone's value for all of its stockholders".
The move expands Lilly's biotechnology capabilities and also gives it access to ImClone blockbuster cancer treatment Erbitux (cetuximab).
Erbitux is indicated for a variety of colorectal and head and neck cancers. Worldwide sales grew 18% to $1.3 billion last year.
The drug is marketed by ImClone's two partners, Merck and BMS. ImClone co-promotes Erbitux in North America with BMS.
"Joining forces at this stage of our growth will allow us to leverage Lilly's global capabilities and make even greater advancements in our proprietary pipeline," said ImClone chief executive John H. Johnson.
Lilly will take a one-off hit for the continuing research and development it acquires, but the company says it is too early to say how much that will be.
John Lechleiter, Lilly's president and chief executive, says: "By bringing together ImClone's and Lilly's marketed oncology products, pipelines, and biotech capabilities, we are taking a very important step forward in addressing the challenges of patent expirations we will face early in the next decade."
James Cornelius, chairman and chief executive of BMS, adds: "Looking ahead, we will work closely with Lilly, a company I know well, to continue to bring to patients not only Erbitux but other compounds."
Bristol-Myers Squibb still holds long-term marketing rights to another ImClone compound, IMC-11F8, currently in phase II studies for metastatic colorectal cancer.
It targets the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), the same receptor targeted by Erbitux.
ImClone's other pipeline fully-human monoclonal antibodies include:
IMC-1121B, which targets the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) receptor to stop tumour blood vessels growing. phase II studies are underway for metastatic melanoma, renal, liver, ovarian and prostate cancers and phase III for metastatic breast cancer
IMC-A12, which targets the insulin-like growth factor-1 receptor (IGF-1R). Currently phase II testing in breast, prostate, pancreatic, colon, liver and head and neck cancers, as well as sarcoma, with phase III trials planned next year.
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