Bristol Myers set to buy heart drug developer MyoKardia for $13 billion
Bristol Myers Squibb Co BMY.N stated on Monday, that it would buy MYOK.O for about $13 billion to bolster its portfolio of heart disease treatments, as it strives to lessen some of its dependence on cancer drugs.
The deal follows Bristol Myers’ $74 billion obtainment of Celgene Corp last year, that stirred two of the world’s largest cancer drug businesses in the largest pharmaceutical deal ever.
The shares of MyoKardia, which have nearly made twice as much in value this year, yielded another 58.5% to $221.25 before the opening bell, just shy of Bristol Myers’ offer price of $225 per share.
With the deal, Bristol Myers gains mavacamten, an experimental heart disease therapy with blockbuster capacity.
The drug is being tested for treating obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy – a disease where a heart muscle thickens and obstructs blood flow. It affects up to 200,000 people across the United States and Europe.
“I think it is a normal acquisition premium for our sales goals for mavacamten as we had measures in the initial (and lowest risk) indication of obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy of about $2.5 billion by 2026,” Wedbush analyst David Nierengarten said.
Bristol Myers said the obtainment provides a “medium- and long-term growth driver” and will add to its earnings onset in 2023, a year after its top-selling cancer drug Revlimid is expected to lose some of its patent exclusivity in the United States.
Sales of its blockbuster immunotherapy Opdivo have been eclipsed by Merck & Co’s MRK.N Keytruda, which has obtained permissions to treat newly diagnosed forms of advanced lung cancer.
Myokardia is wanted to submit a marketing application for mavacamten to the U.S. health regulator in the first quarter of 2021.
Bristol Myers concluded that it expects to analyze the use of mavacamten for other diseases and improve MyoKardia’s portfolio of experimental drugs.
