Bristol-Myers Squibb to Buy Monoclonal Antibody Maker Medarex
Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) announced late yesterday that it intends to purchase Princeton, NJ-based Medarex for $2.1 billion. BMS and Medarex were working collaboratively to develop a monoclonal antibody called Ipilimumab as a treatment for late stage melanoma.
The acquisition represents BMS’s public commitment to transform itself into a “next generation pharmaceutical company” with both pharmaceutical and biotechnology products in its arsenal. Last year, BMS bought Kosan Biosciences, Inc a California-based biotechnology company developing novel cancer treatments. Also, as you may recall, BMS lost ImClone to Lilly in a bidding war over Erbitux—a monoclonal antibody-based colorectal cancer treatment that was co-marketed by BMS.
Medarex was one of the last independent, public, late stage monoclonal antibody development companies in the biotechnology industry. Many of its competitors, like ImClone and Cambridge Antibody Technologies, had already been acquired by big pharma and I was wondering when Medarex would be acquired. I have always held Medarex in high regard and it is a solid and well position company. To that end, I recommended that my mother purchase Medarex stock several years ago telling her that I thought it had a huge upside. Not surprisingly, the stock has been soaring since the announcement; so much so that my mother called me today to tell me how smart I was—go figure.
It is not clear, at present, what effect, if any, the Medarex acquisition will have on the employment situation in New Jersey. Although BMS is headquartered in NYC, it has two large sites in New Jersey, one in Lawrenceville and the other in Plainsboro. As mentioned above Medarex is based in Princeton, NJ. BMS has been steadily downsizing over the past three years and I suspect that there may be more layoffs after the Medarex deal closes. If there are layoffs, more are likely to occur on the Medarex side of the business.
While I have been critical of some of BMS’ strategic moves in the past, I think the Medarex acquisition is an outstanding one and BMS will likely benefit from it!
Until next time...
Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!
Medarex shareholders have taken extrordinary risks over the years with this company. Now that Medarex is about to capitalize on its large pipeline of fully- human antibody theraputics, BMS is offering medarex shareholders a fraction of what this company is truly worth
The fact that Medarex management negotiated and accepted an offer of $16.00 dollars per-share is an outrage.
Considering the long-term benefits to BMS and the fact that Ulti-mab antibody platform is the Gold Standard in human antibody technology, it is clear to me that Medarex Management should have attempted to obtain a better price for their shareholders.
Depending on many factor BMS stands to make between 6 and 10 billion dollars and possibly more over the next decade, as antibodies generated by medarex technology achieve market status.
The fact that Mr. Pien, current Medarex CEO who's tenure at the company is less than many of its long term shareholders, is going to be paid a muti-million dollar bonus is very disconcerting outrage as well.
Medarex shareholders can do better than this.
Medarex shareholders have taken extrordinary risks over the years with this company. Now that Medarex is about to capitalize on its pipeline, BMS is offering medarex shareholders a fraction of what this company is truly worth
The fact that Medarex management negotiated and accepted an offer of $16.00 dollars per-share is an outrage.
Considering the long-term benefits to BMS and the fact that Ulti-mab antibody platform is the Gold Standard in human antibody technology, it is clear to me that Medarex Management should have attempted to obtain a better price for their shareholders.
Depending on many factor BMS stands to make between 6 and 10 billion dollars and possibly more over the next decade, as antibodies generated by medarex technology achieve market status.
The fact that Mr. Pien, current Medarex CEO isgoing to be paid a muti-million dollar bonus is very disconcerting outrage as well.Medarex shareholders can do better than this